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FIFTYYEARSIN'IOWA: 



BEING THE 



PEKSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
J. M. D. BURROWS, 



OONOERNING THE 



Men and Events, Social Life, Industkial 

Interests, Physical Development, 

AND Commercial Progress 



OF 



DAVENPORT AND SCOTT COUNTY, 



DURING THE PERIOD 
FROM 



1888 TO 1888. 



DAVENPORT, IOWA: 

GLASS & COMPANY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 
1888. 






' It 



ExPLAjSTATOEY. 



In submitting to my fellow-citizens this volume, containing 
the recollections of a round half century of life in Iowa, and 
more particularly in Davenport and Scott County, among the 
old-time friends and their descendants, to whom I now look for 
such audience as I may be favored with, it seems proper for me 
to explain briefly the circumstances that have led me to attempt 
a task so unaccustomed as the making of a book. 

About a year ago, after a long life of constant activity and 
exceptionally good health, I was stricken with heart disease. 
As usual with that dreaded malady, the attack, in my case, 
was wholly unheralded and unexpected. It prostrated me com- 
pletely at the time, and since then I have been unable to per- 
form any physical labor. 

Casting about, in this extremity, what I should do to gain a 
livelihood while life might be granted to me yet a little longer, 
it was suggested by friends that many persons would read with 
interest some account of men and events in Scott County, as I 
knew them, during the pioneer days of the early '40's, together 
with such personal gossip and reminiscences of business strug- 
gles, social changes, and other local matters in the later history 
of Davenport, as I could set down in narrative form. 

Acting on this idea, I have written the book presented here- 
with. Much of the writing has been done when the writer was 
able barely to sit up in bed. Many of the facts have been 
jotted down regardless of temporal sequence, as they came up- 
permost in my mind, between spells of physical suffering. The 
exigency of the circumstances, forcing me into the heretofore 
untried field of literature, even in this humble form, must stand 
as my apology for whatever is crude in the story. 

One feature of the book does not please me, as I read the 
proofs of the completed work: it is that the narrative seems so 



iv EXPLANATORY. 

permeated with the presence of J. M. D. Burrows. Many times 
his personality has crept in almost without the knowledge, cer- 
tainly without the intent, of the writer. These instances, which 
escaped notice while the history was being written, are unpleas- 
antly apparent to me now. But, as I have been giving my own 
recollections, mostly of scenes in which I was a principal actor, 
I hope that my friends will consider these repeated, though 
oftentimes unconscious, references to self as, at the worst, a 
necessary evil, rather than as purposely intrusive egotism. 

The more confidential relationship of reader and writer in 
prefatory chapters must be my excuse for one more purely per- 
sonal statement. Every one who knows anything of me and 
my history, knows that I made several fortunes during my act- 
ive business career in Davenport. Some may ask, and with 
reason, " Why did he not lay by a competency against the bar- 
ren days of old age? " I answer that it was my hope and expect- 
ation to do so; yet, in the years when prosperity smiled upon 
me, there were crises in the commercial life of Davenport and 
Scott County, when the welfare of the community seemed to 
demand my continuance in business. I continued, and sacri- 
ficed more than one fortune in my perhaps mistaken, but at 
least unselfish, loyalty to the interests of the community. Had 
the right man appeared to take my place at any one of several 
important junctures in the affairs of Davenport, I should have 
stepped down and out gladly. As it was, I stood in the breach 
too long. 

To this closing explanation, I add the hope that this work — 
my last — will prove not only interesting to such of my friends 
and former co-workers as still live to read it, but instructive to 
the younger generation, as a faithful, if rudely drawn, chronicle 
of the vicissitudes which we, who are passing rapidly away and 
out of their memories, underwent to make Davenport what it is. 

J. M. D. B. 



Table of CoiN^TEJsrTS. 



Chapter I. 

The Villages of Stephenson and Davenport in 1838; a First 
Glimpse of Iowa Scenery ; the Ferry Primeval and Cap- 
tain John Wilson; "Citizens 25 Cents, Strangers 50 
Cents;" from Cincinnati by Horse and Buggy; Hard- 
ships on the Way; Some Early Settlers 1 

Chapter II. 

Buying a Squatter's Claim in Scott County; Cuts Drawn 
for Choice of Halves; the Difficulties of House-Build- 
ing; Down River in a Yawl; Trials of Early Navigation; 
an Honest Landlady; a Railroad Journey to New Jer- 
sey ^ 5 

Chapter III. 

Scarcity of Houses in Davenport in 1839; Two vSmall 
Rooms a Mansion; Outbreak of the Rockingham and 
Missouri Wars; Marshalling the Davenport Patriots; 
Revolt Led by the Knight of the Sheet-Iron Sword; 
Judge Grant and the Horse-Thief 11 

Chapter IV. 

" Brimstone Corner " in Davenport; Some Early Burying- 
Grounds; Coffins that Floated; Establishment of the 
First Newspaper, the "Iowa Sun;" a Remarkable Prize 
Potato, and How It was Made; Editor Logan's Right- 
eous Indignation 16 

Chapter V. 

The Interesting History of the Rev. Michael Hummer; His 
Eccentric Habits and High Temper; How He Fell Out 
with the Iowa Citizens Over a Church Bell; the Pleas- 
ing Ballad of " Hummer's Bell." 19 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter VI. 

"Breaking" a Scott County Claim; the First Davenport 
Vegetable Wagon; Engaging in the Mercantile Busi- 
ness; Testing a Rockingham Doctor; Sociability of 
the Old Settlers; the Delights of the Early " Straw 
Ride." 23 

Chapter VII. 

Struggles in the. Mercantile Trade; the First Store, and 
Ho'tv It was Stocked; Another Trip to Cincinnati; Rudi- 
mentary Banking in Davenport; Trade Begins to Pick 
Up 27 

Chapter VIII. 

Servant Girls Almost as Hard to Get in the Forties as They 
are Now; a Specimen Hunt for Help when It was 
Needed Badly; Help, when Found, was Better Then 
than Now, though 30 

Chapter IX. 

Beginning of the Produce Trade in Davenport; Buying 
Wheat and Hogs on a Venture; Success Despite the 
Discouraging Predictions of Friends; I Hire R. M. 
Prettyman 33 

Chapter X. 

A Trip North in 1841; Trading with the Fur Company; a 
Perilous Journey Home with Pockets Full of Gold; 
Nearly Drowned in a Canoe; the Suspected Farmer and 
the Power of Prayer; a Stranger in the Dark; Home at 
Last 36 

Chapter XI. 

Hard Times and Over-Production ; Bidding for the Govern- 
ment Contracts for Forts Snelling and Crawford; Timely 
Aid from Antoine Le Claire and Colonel Davenport; the. 
Atchison Brothers and Their Methods 42 

Chapter XII. 

Orders Made and Counternianded by the Government; the 
Difficulty of Finding Hogs for Market; Another Deal 
with the Atchison Brothers; Dark Days for the Farm- 
ers; Success in the End -. 45 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii 

Chapter XIII. 

My Introduction to Daniel T. Newcomb; a Hurried Night 
Ride to Muscatine; Mr. Newcomb's Hospitality and 
Enterprise; Some Early Real Estate Transactions in 
Davenport; the Newcomb Memorial Chapel; Mrs. New- 
comb 48 

ClIArTER XIV. 

Opening of 1848; an Unprofitable Speculation in White 
Beans; Low Water in the Fall; to St. Louis in a Flat- 
boat; a Rough Journey Back; the Mormon Prophet's 
Assistance 52 

Chapter XV. 

Formation of the Firm of "Burrows & Prettyman;" More 
Low Water in the Mississippi; Another Trip by Flat- 
boat to St. Louis; Disastrous Journey to New Orleans 
^ with a Cargo of Potatoes; Close of 1843 57 

Chapter XVI. 

More Business Reverses in 1845; the Rockingham Mill 
Fiasco; the Specious Boom in Wheat for England; the 
Boom Collapses; Heavy Losses by Burrows & Pretty- 
man; Our Transactions with Henning & Woodruff; Bet- 
ter Times Set In 61 

Chapter XVII. 

Retrieving the Ill-Luck of 1845; a Big Speculation in 
Wheat that Paid Enormous Profits; the Rockingham 
Corn Deal; Corn a Glut in the Market; Selling Out 
Cheap 66 

Chapter XVIII. 

Advent of the Germans in Davenport; a Sturdy and 
Industrious Race; Outbreak of the Cholera; Many 
Fatal Cases; to St. Louis Overland; Hard Traveling on 
the Home Trip; Some Facetious Young Men, and Who 
Laughed Last; Seasons of Hard Work 69 

Chapter XIX. 

Arrival of A. C. Fulton and a Remarkable Stock of Goods; 
Mr. Fulton's Attempts to Revolutionize Local Com- 
merce; a Great Boom in Onions, and Why it Failed to 



viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Boom; Other Schemes Like those of Colonel Mulberry 
Sellers; the Glorious Conquest of Santa Anna 73 

Chapter XX. 

Mr. Fulton's Peculiar Manner of Dealing in Mill Property; 
a Rivalry with Some Bitterness; Failure of the Opposi- 
tion Mill; Mr. Fulton's Serious Illness; a Sick-Bed 
Reconciliation 78 

Chapter XXI. 

Burrows & Prettyman Buy the ^tna Mill; Mr. Fulton's 
Successful Real Estate Operations; a Commercial Sen- 
sation; Wreck of the ^Etna Mill; the Purchase of Ofifer- 
mann's Island, and Its Subsequent Sale; Some Reverses . 84 

Chapter XXII. 

History of the Banking Business in Davenport; Cook & 
Sargent's Early Operations; Currency Very Scarce and 
Unsafe; the Loss of a Trunk Filled with Bullion, and 
Its Recovery; Hard Times in a Sfcage-Coach; Lost in an 
Old-Fashioned Blizzard 88 

Chapter XXIII. 

Change in the Firm of Burrows k Prettyman; Young Ed- 
ward Davidson's Service; Trading Up and Down the 
River; Success of the New Business Scheme 92 

Chapter XXIV. 

Edward Davidson's Business Venture; Trips Along the 
River; His Death in Trying to Cross on Moving Ice; 
Operations of Burrows k Prettyman; Some Successful 
Investments; Sale of the Pork-House 95 

Chapter XXV. 

Once More in the Pork-Packing Line; the Greatest Pack- 
ing Season on Record; Every Warehouse and Cellar 
Filled with Frozen Hogs; Difficulty in Obtaining Ready 
Money; Financial Troubles Successfully Surmounted; 
a Profitable Season's Business 98 

Chapter XXVL 

Western Flour Popular Far from Home; from the Shores 
of the Mississippi to the Banks of the Hudson; How 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 

They Liked Davenport's Flour in the East; One Brand 
at a Premium; Cost of Shipping 102 

Chapter XXVII. 

More About the Banking Business in Davenport; Trouble 
Over "Wild-Cat" Currency; Cook & Sargent's "Flor- 
ence" Notes; Burrows & Pretty man Try Their Luck; 
All Goes Well 105 

Chapter XXVIII. 

My First and Only Experience as a Steamboat Captain; a 
Late Trip Down River with the Staunch Little " Mary 
C.;" We Make a Safe Run, and Lots of Money out of It; 
Incidents Going and C6ming 108 

Chapter XXIX. 

The Beginning of Financial Complications that Led to a 
Serious Crisis; Cook & Sargent's Efforts to Save Them- 
selves from Disaster; Calling In Their Florence Cur- 
rency; How They were Accommodated by Burrows & 
Prettyman, and Other Friends; Attacks from Macklot 
& Corbin, and the Press 112 

Chapter XXX. 

Cook & Sargent Resort to Unexpected Tactics; Burrows & 
Pretty man's Resources Threatened; an Interview in the 
Bank; Cook & Sargent Force the Issue; a Run on Bur- 
rows \' Prettyman, and How it was Weathered 116 

Chapter XXXI. 

Every Check Redeemed by Burrows & Prettyman; Differ- 
ence Between that Course and the Handling of " Flor- 
ence;" I Mortgage "Clifton " to Help the Cooks; an 111- 
Advised Step 119 

Chapter XXXIL 

Events Preliminary to the Cook Sz Sargent Collapse; My 
Milling Operations in 1852-53; Breaking Out of the 
Crimean War; a Great Boom in American Wheat; My 
Preparations to Meet It; Opening of the Chicago & 
Rock Island Railroad 122 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapteb XXXIII. 

An Unparalleled Wheat Crop in Iowa; Buying It All In at 
Seemingly Exorbitant Prices; Luck Favors the Specu- 
lator; the Investment of Sebastopol Causes Enormous 
Profits; ^100,000 in Sixty Days; Even Disaster Makes 
Money for Me; Beginning of the End 125 

Chapter XXXIV. 

A Sudden Taste of Adversity; Death of Nicholas, Czar of 
Russia, and Slump in the Wheat Market; a Loss of 
$200,000 in a Single Day; Distress Among Dealers All 
Along the Mississippi; Small Disasters Follow the Big 
One — the Camanche Cyclone with the Rest 129 

Chapter XXXV. 

Cook k Sargent in a Strait; those "Florence" Notes Cause 
the Trouble; History of the "Currency Riot" of 1859; 
Ebenezer Cook's House Smashed; the Rioters Visit 
" Clifton," but Think Better of Their Purpose; an Excit- 
ing Epoch 132 

Chapter XXXVI. 

The Storm Thickens Over Cook & Sargent; a Note Pro- 
tested by Macklot & Corbin; No Funds in the Rival 
Bank; Unsuccessful Efforts to Stay the Impending 
Catastrophe; a Day of Anxiety 135 

Chapter XXXVII. 

The Blow Falls at Last; "Closed," at Cook & Sargent's; a 
Mob of Angry Depositors; Desperate Scene in the Bank; 
Ebenezer Cook's Frenzied Despair; the Missing Bundle 
of County Orders; Unwarranted Use of Them by the 
Ruined Bankers; a Forgotten Promise 137 

Chapter XXXVIII. 

Action at Law Against Cook & Sargent; the Mortgage on 
" Clifton ;" Victory in the Lower Court, but Reversal in 
the Supreme Tribunal; the Revelation of After Years; a 
Single Judge Casts the Die from "Sympathy;" Gross 
Injustice All Around 141 

Chapter XXXIX. 

More Reverses in Business; Mr. Prettyman Retires; the 
Rebellion Contributes to the Sum Total of Misfortune; 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 

Then Came the Fire that Destroyed the Albiou Mills; 
Not a Dollar of Insurance 144 

Chapter XL. 

Once More in the Milling Line, and Once More Wiped Out 
by Fire; Close of My Business Career, and Beginning 
of Days Darkened by Poverty; Sketches of My Two 
Btaunchest Business Associates, Robert M. Prettyman 
and James E. Woodruff 148 

Chapter XLI. 

History of the Establishment of Oakdale Cemetery; Diffi- 
culty to Obtain Money; Present Condition of the Beau- 
tiful City of the Dead 152 

Chapter XLIL 
A Closing Retrospection 155 



APPENDIX. 



Chapter I. 
The Mormons 160 

Chapter II. 
The Murder of Colonel Davenport 175 



CHAPTER L 

The Villages of Stephenson and Davenport in 1838 — A 
First Glimpse of Iowa Scenery — The Ferry Primeval 
AND Captain John Wilson — "Citizens, 25 Cents; Stran- 
gers, 50 Cents" -From Cincinnati by Horse and Buggy 
— Hardships on the Way — Some Early Settlers. 

On the 27tli clay of July, 1838, I was on board 
the magnificent steamer Brazil, Captain Orrin Smith, 
my destination being Stephenson, now Rock Island 
City, Illinois. When I arose in the morning, the 
steamer was just landing at Buffalo, Scott County, 
Wisconsin Territory, now Iowa. The scene upon 
which I gazed enchanted me. The sloping lawns 
and wooded bluffs, with the sea of beautiful wild 
flowers, were a picture of loveliness such as I never 
had beheld before. The remainder of the trip I 
spent on the guards of the boat, enraptured with the 
beauty of the ever-changing scenery. 

We arrived early in the day at the villnge of 
Stephenson. Before night my business was accom- 
plished. My landlord, of the Rock Island House, 
informed me thnt I would not be ah\e to get a boat 
until the return of tlie Brazil, some two days later. 
I will say here, that the Rock Island House was a 
credit to the town, and a mucli better hotel tlian I 
expected to find in this then new country. 

On the next day, after partaking of a good break- 
fast, I decided to cross the river and examine the lovely 



2 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

little hamlet of about a dozen houses, which looked so 
cosy, nestled under the bluff. At that time, the ferry 
was run by that veteran. Captain John Wilson, and 
consisted of two steamboat yawls and a flat-boat. 
There were several passengers besides myself, and, 
as soon as we left the shore, the old gentleman began 
to collect his fares. I noticed that each passenger 
paid twenty -five cents. I tendered my quarter, when 
I was informed my fare was fiff/j cents. I demurred, 
of course, and was surprised, as well as somewhat 
amused, to be told that for "citizens" the fare was 
twenty-five cents, but for strangers it was fifty cents. 
I replied, "Oh! that is the way you do here, is it? 
Where I came from, they treat strangers the best." 

On landing, I found a beautiful little hamlet of 
fifteen houses, with a population of about one hun- 
dred and fifty persons. I did not expect to see any 
one that I had ever seen before, but I soon met a 
man whom I had known well in Cincinnati — a car- 
penter — B. F. Coates. He received me warmly, and 
introduced me to D. C. Eldridge and several more 
Cincinnatians. The little town was settled mostly 
by people from Cincinnati. Tliey all insisted that I 
should close up my business in Stephenson, and wait 
in Davenport until my boat returned, and they would 
spend the time in showing me the most beautiful 
country the sun ever shone upon. I consented, and 
Mr. Coates took a horse and buggy, and drove witli 
me out some five or six miles in different directions. 

It was just the time of year when the country 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 3 

showed to best advantage. The prairies were cov- 
ered with wild flowers, and the beautiful landscape 
was unsurpassed. I said to myself, " This shall be 
my home." 

On the return of the Brazil, I left, with the inten- 
tion, if I possibly could, to emigrate. As soon as I 
returned to Cincinnati, I advertised my place for 
sale, and, in a few weeks, found a purchaser. I then 
determined to return immediately, and to make a 
more thorough examination of the country before 
taking such an important step. 

Both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were, at that 
time (October), very low, and navigation tedious. I 
decided to make the trip by land, so purchased a 
horse and buggy, and was making arrangements for 
the journey, when I was called upon by John Owens, 
whom I had never seen before. After introducing 
himself, he said he understood I intended to make a 
trip to Wisconsin Territory, and he wanted to go 
along:. He offered to take a half interest in the out- 
fit. He was not quite ready to go, and I agreed to 
wait ten days for him. 

At last the day arrived, and lo! it was a Friday. 
Owens said he would not begin such an important 
enterprise on Friday, and insisted that we should 
wait until Saturday, which I opposed, on the ground 
that it was too late in the week. AVe were both 
anxious to be off, so we agreed to start on Thursday 
evening, and go two or three miles, which we did, set- 
ting out about sundown, and driving some three miles. 



4 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

We found the roads through Indiana very rough 
and tedious, a great share of them being what was 
called "corduroy;" but through Illinois they were 
excellent, although there was a great want of bridges, 
and in fording some streams we found it quite dan- 
gerous. 

The great prairies of Illinois were a magnificent 
sight — one vast sea of grass and flowers, and most 
of them as level as a floor. We passed very few 
farms. Fifty years ago there were not many settle- 
ments in Illinois. We crossed a number of prairies, 
where, as might be said, we were out of sight of 
land — not a house or a tree to be seen. There was 
a ijreat deal of sickness on our route. We had to 
attend our own horse, and, most of the time, sleep 
on the floor, with a blanket and a pillow for our bed. 

Ten days and a half from the time we left Cincin- 
nati, we forded Rock River, and soon reached our 
future home. At that time, Stephenson, on the 
Illinois side of the Mississippi, was a considerable 
town, and a much older and more important place 
than Davenport Rock Island contained no inhabit- 
ants except Colonel George Davenport and his fam- 
ily. Old Fort Armstrong, with its block-houses, 
occupied the west end of the Island. 

Mr. Owens and myself spent some three weeks in 
thoroughly examining the country. One of the 
best settlements was in Pleasant Valley. The Hydes, 
Captain Hawley, Moss <fe Bradley, Sam. Hedges, 
0. Rowe, Adam Donaldson, the Henleys and Fennos 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 5 

were there. There was a small saw-mill on Duck 
Creek, and a grist-mill, contaiuiDg one small run of 
stone, on Crow Creek. Both these streams con- 
tained twice as much water then as now. 

We drove back to Allen's Grove; also to Walnut 
and Hickory Groves, where we found John Dunn, 
L. Lathrop, Dennis JX. Fuller, and the Carters, all 
of whom were hard at work making themselves 
homes. Below Rockingham, Enoch Mead, David 
Sullivan, Captain James Murray, Foster Campbell, 
James E. Burnsides, Lewis W. Clark, and others, 
were busily engaged in laying the foundation of 
Scott County's future prosperity. 



CHAPTER II. 

Buying a Squatter's Claim in Scott County — Cuts Drawn 
FOR Choice of Halves — The Difficulties of House - 
Building — Down River in a Yawl— Trials of Early 
Navigation — An Honest Landlady — A Railroad Jour- 
ney TO New Jersey. 

After a thorough examination of the county, and 
making Mie acquaintance of many of the settlers, we 
both determined to emigrate, and purchased the 
eighty-acre tract west of and adjoining the town. 
It was a squatter's claim. We paid four hundred 
and fifty dollars for it, and each wanted it, so we 
agreed to divide it, and to draw cuts for the first 
choice. I won, and chose the half next to the town, 



6 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

for wliicli I paid two hundred and fifty dollars, Mr. 
Owens taking the other half at two hundred dollars. 
We then concluded to lay claim to a section of land, 
and selected Section 17. AVe divided it, north and 
south, and, each again wanting the half adjoining 
the town, we drew cuts, as before. I won, and took 
the part I wanted. 

Fearing we would have trouble to dnd our claim, 
we hired Strong Burnell, who was breaking prairie 
in the vicinity, to plow three furrows around the 
whole section, for which we paid thirty dollars — ten 
dollars a furrow. We proposed to plant this strip 
of plowed ground with locust trees. 

The next thing I did, was to make arrangements 
to build a house on my forty acres. I found a man 
in Davenport, a settler of that year, who had bought 
a lot and erected a frame on it, but who had become 
discouraged, and wished to return East. I bought 
the frame standing, paying one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars for it, and engaged B. F. Coates to take 
it to pieces and put it up on my land, leaving money 
with him with which to buy weather -boarding, 
sheathing, etc., and it was agreed that I should 
bring the shingles, flooring, doors and windows with 
me in the spring, from Cincinnati, which would be 
much cheaper and better. 

We had now spent three weeks here, by which 
time we both had become homesick, and began to 
look around for a way to return, as we did not wish 
to return by land. I paid Mr. Owens for his interest 



FIFTY YEARS TN TOWA. 7 

in the horse and ])nggy, and let a man have the use 
of it for keeping it until spring. 

The river was so low and the season so late that 
we could not get a boat, so we bought a yawl of the 
ferryman, paying thirty dollars for it. Before we 
started. William Collins and a Mr. Gait, of Moline, 
applied to us for passage. They were carpenters, 
and eaclv had a large tool-chest. Our craft was a 
large steamboat yawl, but four men and two heavy 
tool-chests made it draw nearly as much as a steam- 
boat. A number of times we grounded, not being 
good pilots. 

Of our crew of four, two are dead. John Owens 
died many years ago. William Collins died in 
Davenport, last summer. Mr. Gait still lives in 
Moline, and has been in feeble health for some years. 
Neither liP nor the writer can last much longer. 
Fifty years after a man has reached twenty-four 
does not leave him much vitality. 

At eleven o'clock a. m., we ])ushed off, and set our 
faces homeward. W^e took turns at rowing, and, by 
dusk, saw a nice log cabin on the bank of the river, 
on the Iowa side, at the head of a slough. We 
landed and engaged accommodation for the night. 
Our landlord was a Mr. Cloud, the sheriff of Musca- 
tine County. We were as hungry as wolves, and 
such a supppr! Fried squirrels, hot biscuit, pure 
white honey, hot coffee, et cciern. As we had eaten 
nothing since morning, we did full justice to the 
princely meal. 



8 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

The next morning at daylight, telling our host we 
would not wait for breakfast, we pulled out for what 
was then Bloomington, now Muscatine, and soon after 
sunrise found a little cluster of houses in the woods, 
one of which was a tavern. Getting our breakfast 
there, we again pulled out. At about nine o'clock 
that night, we landed at Oquawka, Illinois, in a cold, 
driving rain. It was as dark as pitch, and we were 
met at the landing by about fifty drunken Indians, 
with firebrands and lanterns, which they waved, 
yelling and shouting. We thought our scalps in 
danger; but our dusky escort piloted us to a tavern 
in safety. 

In the morning, the weather was blustering and 
threatening more rain, but we pushed out once more. 
The river was rougher than we expected, and, in at- 
tempting to cross to the Iowa side, we were nearly 
swamped. We could make neither shore; but, find- 
ing a willow island near by, we hauled our craft up 
in the willows, and stayed there from sunrise until 
sunset, when, the wind falling, we started out and 
went as far as Burlington, where we stayed all night 
and found good accommodations. 

About sunrise, the next day, after a good break- 
fast, we again put our faces southward. When 
about a mile below the town, in the middle of tlie 
river, I accidentally put my hand into my pocket, 
and discovered that my pocket-book was missing. 
On reflection, I remembered putting it under my 
bolster the night before, and, as it contained all my 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 9 

money, some two hundred and eighty dollars, I told 
the boys to put me ashore as soon as possible. I 
made double-quick time for the house, and went 
directly to the bedroom. The bed had been made, 
but I soon tore it to pieces. Just then the lady of 
the house appeared. 

"Are you looking for your pocket-book?" she 
asked. "Here it is; I found it when I made your 
bed." The woman was honest — no one to blame 
but myself. 

Our next stopping-place was Nauvoo, where we 
stayed all night. When we started in the morning, 
the people informed us that our yawl drew too much 
water to cross the rapids, and we would likely be 
wrecked; but we pulled out about sunrise, hoping, 
some time during the night, to reach (^uincy, where 
we expected to get a steamboat, as w6 had been told 
there were two boats running between that place and 
St. Louis. After working hard all day to reach 
Quincy, we made a mistake, just before dark, by 
running into a slough about fifteen miles above the 
town. After following the slough for a mile, the 
water failed, and we ran high and dry on a sand-bar, 
some four hundred feet from the shore. We worked 
faithfully until midnight, when, tired and discour- 
aged, we concluded to leave the boat there until 
morning, and waded ashore in water about two feet 
deep, and, in some places, deeper. We hoped to find 
a house or cabin, but, after exploring half an hour 
and yelling until we were hoarse, we ascertained that 

2 



10 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

we were on au uninhabited island, so had to pass the 
night under a big oak tree, with no blankets, wet 
and hungry, having had nothing to eat since morn- 
ing. The weather was very cold, it being about the 
15th of November. We were a sorry set. We gath- 
ered leaves for our bed, limbs and brush to protect 
us from the sharp wind, and a large pile of stumps 
and chunks for a fire. We divided ourselves into 
two w^atches; one to keep up fires for three hours, 
while the other slept, and then changed watches. 

In the morning, as soon as we could see, we suc- 
ceeded in getting our craft afloat, and towed her up 
the river about a mile, where we struck the main 
stream, and had no further trouble in reaching 
Quincy. We arrived there about twelve o'clock, 
noon, nearly starved, having had nothing to eat 
since sunrise the day before. We ordered our din- 
ner prepared as soon as possible, and were told that 
the regular dinner would be ready in half an hour. 
It was a sumptuous dinner, and we did it full justice. 

About two o'clock p. m., the steamer Burlington, 
Captain Throckmorton, arrived. The Captain said 
the boat would return to St. Louis at four r. M. We 
put our yawl in charge of a warehouse man, to keep 
until spring. He put it in his warehouse, and during 
the winter he was burned out, and we lost our boat. 

On reaching St. Louis, we found a steamer just 
ready to start for Cincinnati, and, securing passage, 
we had no further trouble. I reached home on 
Saturday morning. On Monday evening, I started 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 11 

East, with my wife and child, to spend the winter in 
NeAv York and New Jersey, where I was born and 
spent the days of my childhood. I never spent a 
happier winter. 

In making my trip East, I took a steamer to 
Wheeling, and thence by stage to Lancaster, Penn- 
sylvania, Avhere I struck the first railroad I ever saw, 
by which I went to Philadelphia — and such a trip! 

There were no separate accommodaticms for ladies. 
There were rough bunks for sleeping, which we did 
not avail ourselves of. Men were drinking, smoking, 
playing cards, and cursing and swearing. You 
would have thought you were in a saloon. Such 
was my first experience in railroad travel, fifty years 
ago. 



CHAPTER III. 

Scarcity of Houses in Davenpokt in 1839 — Two Small 
Rooms a Mansion— Outbreak of the Rockingham and 
Missouri Wars — Marsh alliIng the Davenport Patriots 

— Revolt Led by the Knight of the Sheet-Iron Sword 

— Judge Grant and the Horse-Thief. 

About the 1st of March, 1839, I received letters 
saying the Mississippi was about to break up, and 
at once I commenced making arrangements to return. 
Being anxious to add to the population of the little 
settlement in Iowa, I persuaded two brothers-in-law, 
Wheeler Crane, a carriage-maker, and Joseph Beach, 
a painter, also my two brothers, Lewis and David, 



12 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

stout lads in those days, to accompany me. Our 
journey was without incident until we reached the 
hjwer rapids, where we had a tedious time, getting 
fast on the rocks, and being nearly a week getting 
over. 

At last, on the 4tli day of April, we reached our 
future home, being put ashore on the bank of the 
river, about half way between Perry and Rock Island 
streets. I remember the day well. It was a gloomy 
day, the wind blew a perfect gale, and everything 
looked cheerless. 

I found that the man whom I had engaged to put 
up my house had betrayed me. The money I had 
left with him to purchase lumber, he had applied to 
his own use, and there was nothing on the ground 
but the naked frame which I had purchased in the 
fall. 

The first thing to be done was to find shelter for 
my wife and child. I succeeded in renting two 
small rooms, just finished, about twelve feet square, 
at the corner of Third and Ditch (now Harrison) 
streets. The rooms were very small and inconven- 
ient for a family of seven persons. We were 
obliged to go out of doors from one room, to get in- 
to the other. They had been built for offices, but 
in those days we had to do the best we could. 

In about two weeks, I had my house weather- 
boarded and shingled; and, putting down loose 
boards for a floor, moved in at once, and then fin- 
ished it, a room at a time. I found the little town 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 13 

a busy place, every one anxious to secure a home. 
Some settlers, besides myself, came in that spring, 
and a number of houses had been commenced, and 
the inhabitants of the little town were as active as a 
swarm of bees. 

But the (j7-cat excitement was the Kockingham 
War, and, a few weeks later, the Missouri War. I 
served in both, like a true soldier and patriot. The 
Rockingham War was tedious, lasting about two 
years, and four pitched battles were fought, with 
varying success. The contest was for the county- 
seat, which Rockingham had and was loth to give 
up. She had been the emporium of Scott County, 
outnumbering Davenport in population and business. 
But two years made a change. Davenport had 
grown materially, both in population and capital, 
while poor Rockingham had reached her growth, 
some of her citizens deserting to the enemy, and, at 
the last election, sixteen of her people voted for 
Davenport. As an inducement for the people of 
Scott County to vote for Davenport, the citizens 
offered to build the court-house, and present it to 
the county, free of all expense, promising it should 
be equal to the court-house across the river, at 
Stephenson, Illinois ; and it was a few simile. 

In the early summer we were called upon by the 
Governor to volufiteer to march to the Missouri 
line, and drive the Missourians from our sacred soil. 
There was no necessity to repeat the order. We 
were all fighting men in those days. The war be- 



14 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

tween Rockingham and Davenport was suspended 
for a short time, and we all united to resist this in- 
vasion of our territory by the miserable Missouri - 
ans. Davenport was selected as headquarters for 
Scott County. The day appointed for us to meet 
was a lovely, spring-like morning. Nearly every 
man in the county was present to be enrolled. Our 
Colonel, Sam. Hedges, made us a patriotic speech; 
but what a sorry lot of soldiers he had to drill! 
Not having any guns, many came with pitchforks, 
scythes, hoes, and clubs. One man had a sheet-iron 
sword, six or seven feet long. Many were drunk, 
and all were noisy and disposed to jeer and make fun 
of our officers. Our Colonel could stand this no 
longer. All who were drunk, and those improperly 
armed, were ordered out of the ranks. We who 
remained were getting hungry, as it was then dinner 
time, and asked for rations, when we were informed 
that we would have to furnish our own blankets, 
whiskey, and hard-tack, which the government would 
refund at some future day. This we objected to. 
We were willing to shed our blood for our beloved 
Territory, and, if necessary, to kill a few hundred 
Missourians, but we were not going to do that and 
board ourselves. 

At this juncture, we saw approaching, in solemn 
column, our fellow-soldiers who had been discharged. 
They were led by the man with the long sheet-iron 
sword. They charged on us, and it makes me blush 
to say, that, notwithstanding we were three to their 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 15 

one, we were badly defeated and scattered in every 
direction. The Knight of the Sheet-Iron Sword 
made for our Colonel, and nothing but the ColonePs 
superior tieetness sav.ed him. As he ran he informed 
us that we could go home; nothing more would be 
done until he received further orders. 

At this time Congress was in session, and, becom- 
ing alarmed at the civil war impending, interfered. 
The poor barbarians of Missouri, hearing of the hos- 
tile demonstrations being made in Davenport and 
other river towns, withdrew from our Territory. A 
few months later the Supreme Court met and decided 
in our favor, and all was peace. 

Meanwhile, our little village was growing, and the 
contest between it and Rockingham for tlie suprem- 
acy had been resumed. During February, this year 
(1839), the first Protestant church was organized — 
the Presbyterians. During the summer, the Con- 
gregationalists and Baptists organized. Neither of 
these congregations had any church building, but 
held services in carpenter shops and warehouses. 
The Catholics had organized in 1838, and erected the 
first church building in the town. 

In May, 1839, hearing that it was court week, 
and as it was raining hard and I could do no busi- 
ness, I thought 1 would attend court. There was a 
small frame building on Ripley street, at the corner 
of the alley behind Lalirmann's Hall. It had been 
built for a carpenter shop, and was used by the Pres- 
byterians for church purposes, and there court was 



16 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

held. I found the little room crowded, and Judge 
Grant, then '"Squire" Grant, just arranging to de- 
fend a horse-thief. The Judge worked cheap in 
those days. I overheard him whisper to his client: 
"If you don't give me five dollars before I com- 
mence, I won't defend you." 



CHAPTER IV. 

" Brimstone Coener " in Davenport — Some Early Burying- 
Grounds —Coffins that Floated — Establishment of the 
First Newspaper, the "Iowa Sun" — A Remarkable Prize 
Potato, and How It was Made — Editor Logan's Right- 
eous Indignation. 

Nearly the whole little settlement, at that time, 
was about the foot of Ripley street, which was called 
"Brimstone Corner" — I suppose on account of the 
hot style of preaching indulged in there, in those 
days. 

I found a number of the little band which I had 
left there in the fall in perfect health, had gone "to 
that bourne from which no traveler returns." The 
first ten years I passed in Davenport, there was much 
more sickness than now. Ten per cent of our pop- 
ulation died some years, which was attributed to the 
breaking up of such large tracts of prairie, produc- 
ing a miasma which caused fevers, etc. 

Our first burying-place was in a corner of a field 
on the Cook farm, on the north side of the Rocking- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 17 

ham road, nearly opposite the west end of the pres- 
ent Davenport City Cemetery. This was used but a 
very short time. The next burying-place was at the 
corner of Sixth and Le Claire streets. It was a 
miserable selection, and was soon abandoned. I of- 
ficiated as pall-bearer on two occasions while we 
buried there. The first was the burial of Judtjfe 
Mitchell's father. It being early spring, we found 
the grave half full of water, and had to wait until it 
was bailed out. But the water came in so fast that 
the coffin was nearly covered before we could fill the 
grave. The other was a Dr. Emerson, who died in 
the Le Claire House, and was the owner of the cele- 
brated slave, Dred Scott. 

Our next burial-place was the present Davenport 
City Cemetery. The writer and a few other gentle- 
men, not considering this location desirable (it being 
too near the rapidly growing city), nor the extent of 
the grounds sufficient for the purpose, and seeing 
the need of a city for the dead, combined to secure 
one that would be a credit to the city when we were 
dead and gone. It resulted in Oakdale, particulars 
of which will be given hereafter. 

About this time, the first newspaper was estab- 
lished in Davenport. It was called the Iowa Sun. 
Andrew I jogan was editor and proprietor. He worked 
hard to bring the town into notice, with his puffs 
and marvelous stories of our prolific soil. On my 
claim was a little piece of ground, some four or five 
acres, which had been broken up and fenced before 

3 



18 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

I bought. That I immediately planted, and raised 
the best garden in the county. The two lads, my 
brothers Lewis and David, seeing the wonderful ac- 
counts in the loica Sim of the productions of other 
parts of the county, determined to outdo them. We 
raised, in those days, that king of potatoes, the 
Neshenocks. It was a large potato, with numerous 
prongs. Selecting some half-dozen of the largest, 
the boys fastened them together with dowels, or 
wooden pins. When I came home at night, they 
brought it to me. 

"See what we dug to-day!" they said. "Don't 
that beat anything the Iowa Sun has published?" 
I replied, "I think it does. What a monster!" 
I was completely "sold." I said I would take it 
up in the morning, and give it to Mr. Logan. The 
next issue of the loiva Sun did full justice to the 
wonderful production, defying any other soil to pro- 
duce its equal. The editor said if any one thought 
it an exaggeration, the skeptic could call and see the 
monster, as it was hanging up in his office, where he 
should keep it for a few weeks on exhibition, after 
which he proposed to try its eating qualities. About 
two weeks later, during which time the prize potato 
had been examined by hundreds, our fellow-citizen, 
John Forrest, Esq., took hold of it, and noticed that 
one prong was wrong end foremost. So he pulled 
it apart, and the trick was exposed. Had the boys 
not made that mistake, the potato would doubtless 
have been cooked before the joke was discovered. It 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 19 

created a vast amount of fun, and a big laugh at the 
expense of the loica Sun. 

It is said that Mr. Logan abstained from eating 
potatoes for over a month. 

After the discovery, Mr. Forrest hastened up town 
to mj store. He said: "Burrows, they have a big 
joke on you, down town, about that big potato." 
He then tokl me what had occurred. I told him I 
was "sold" with the rest, for I knew nothing about 
it. He advised me to keep away from Logan for a 
few days, or I would lose my scalp. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Intebesting Histoey of the Rev. Michael Hummeb — 
His Eccentric Habits and High Tempeb — How He Fell 
Out with the Iowa Citizens Oveb a Chuech Bell — The 
Pleasing Ballad of "Hummee's Bell." 

In looking over the "Annals of Iowa," to refresh 
my memory, I saw an article on the Rev. Michael 
Hummer, who was a very early settler, and, I believe, 
taught a private "school or academy in Stephenson, 
now Rock Island City, Illinois, in 1838. In the 
spring of 1839, he received a call from the Presby- 
terian Church in Davenport, just organized, to 
preach for them for six months, which he accepted. 
He was a very talented man, and was considered, for 
years, the ablest clergyman in the State; but he was 
very peculiar. He possessed a high temper, and did 
not hesitate to show it if occasion required. 



20 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

After fulfilling his appointment with the Presby- 
terian Church of Davenport, the Rev. Mr. Hummer 
accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church in Iowa 
City. While occupying that position, he was sent 
East to solicit aid for a church they were about to 
erect. Among other donations, he procured a church- 
bell, which was brought out and properly hung in 
the church-steeple. After some time, he and the 
congregation falling out, in his imperious style he 
claimed possession of the bell as his property, which 
claim the church contested. The Rev. Mr. Hummer 
left Iowa City, and went to Keokuk, After a good 
deal of wrangling, he appeared in Iowa City, one 
day, with a wagon and ladder, and, going to the 
church, with the aid of his ladder he succeeded in 
getting into the steeple, and, unfastening the bell, 
lowered it into the wagon. The citizens immediately 
took the ladder down, and drove his team away with 
the bell, which they hid in the Iowa River, leaving 
the Rev. Mr. Hummer to his meditations, in the 
steeple. So many persons have inquired of me 
about this affair, that I thought it would be interest- 
ing to weave the facts into this narrative. I copy 
from the "Annals of Iowa:" 

The future historian of Johnson County will, doubtless, de- 
vote at least one chapter to that talented but most unscrupulous 
individual, yclept the Rev. Michael Hummer, with whom, in 
the minds of the oldest inhabitants of Iowa City, his bell is so 
inseparably connected. 

That bell, famed both in caricature and story, as the highly 
prized jewel of Hummer, so singularly abducted, and so secretly 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 21 

and securely coucealed, was the subject of some hastily written 
versicles, entitled "Hummer's Bell," that, at the time, attained 
considerable popularity, not so much, perhaps, from any intrin- 
sic merit of their own, as from the incident that gave rise to them. 
The first copy of the brochure was given by me to Stephen 
Whicher, Esq., who, upon his own volition, had a number pri- 
vately printed and circulated, in which, greatly to my annoy- 
ance, several changes and interpolations appeared, totally at 
variance with the original; and, as it is extremely doubtful 
whether a correct and ijerfect copy can, at this time, be found, 
I have thought it might be sufficiently interesting, as one of the 
reminiscences of former years, .to have " Hummer's Bell," like 
the tiy preserved in amber, embalmed in the pages of the Annals 
of Iowa. 

A part of the first verse was the improvisation of the Hon. 
John P. Cook, the legal vocalist of the day, who, upon hearing 
a ludicrous story of the bell's departure, broke out in song, to 
the infinite merriment of the members of the bar present, and, 
in his sonorous and mellifluent tones, sang the first six lines, to 
the well - known popular air of " Moore's Evening Bells." 
Stephen Whicher, Esq., who made one of the merry company, 
carefully noted down the fragmentary carol, and, meeting me 
soon afterwards, earnestly solicited me to complete the song, as 
he termed it. His request was immediately complied with, and 
in a few moments, the whole versified story of the bell was 
tol d in an impromptu production, of which I append a copy, 
verbatim et literatum, from the original MS. now lying before 
me, and which has never been out of my possession : 

HUMMER'S BELL. 

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell! 
How many a tale of woe 'twould tell 
Of Hummer driving up to town. 
To take the brazen jewel down. 
And when high up in his belfre-e. 
They moved the ladder, yes, sir-e-e; 
Thus, while he towered aloft, they say 
The bell took wings and fiew away. 



22 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell! 
The bard thy history shall tell; 
How at the East, by Hummer's sleight, 
Donation, gift, and widow's mite, 
Made up the sum that purchased thee, 
And placed him in the ministry. 
But funds grew low, while dander riz; 
Thy clapper stopped, and so did his. 

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ah, Hummer's bell! 
We've heard thy last, thy funeral knell; 
And what an aching void is left — 
Of bell and Hummer both bereft. 
Thou, deeply sunk in running stream, 
Him in a Swedenborgiau dream. 
Both are submerged — both, to our cost. 
Alike to sense and reason lost. 

Ah, Hummer's bell! Ab, Hummer's bell! 
Hidden unwisely, but too well; 
Alas, thou'rt gone! Thy silvery tone 
No more responds to Hummer's groan. 
But yet remains one source of hope, 
For Hummer left a fine bell-rope. 
Which may be used, if such our luck, 
To noose our friend at Keokuk. 

W. H. T. 

I was well acquainted with Mr. Hummer when he 
lived in Davenport, and always had a great deal of 
charity for him, as I always thought him non compos 
mentis. When he left Iowa City, he moved to 
Keokuk, and, after creating a great deal of excite- 
ment in propagating his views on spiritualism, which 
he embraced in his latter days, he became so unpop- 
ular that he went to Missouri, not far from Kansas 
City, since which time I have lost track of him, but 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 23 

have been told he is dead. The celebrated bell, I 
understand, has been recovered from the sands o£ 
the Iowa River, and is now in possession of the Mor- 
mons, at Salt Lake. 



CHAPTER VI. 

" Breaking " a Scott County Claim — The First Davenport 
Vegetable Wagon — Engaging in the Mercantile Busi- 
ness — Testing a Rockingham Doctor — Sociability of 
THE Old Settlers — The Delights of the Early " Straw 
Ride." 

My two brothers-in-law returned East in a few 
months. They were not made of pioneer timber, 
and said this country was only fit for Indians. On 
the 1st day of January, 1840, the population was 
about five hundred, with one hundred houses. During 
the year 1839, I devoted my time to breaking and 
improving my claim. Soon after my arrival, in the 
spring, I went over to Henderson Grove, Illinois, 
and purchased two cows, and two yoke of oxen to 
plow my land; also, a lot of poultry. On my re- 
turn, I could find no feed in the place, so took a trip 
to New Boston, Illinois, and laid in a supply of corn, 
etc. By this time my money was about exhausted, 
and, having my five-acre tract well planted with gar- 
den-truck, much more tlian my family could use, I 
concluded to start a vegetable-wagon, and sent my 
youngest brother, David A. Burrows, then a lad of 
about twelve years, up town, every morning, with a 



24 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

load of vegetables, which he took from house to 
house. This was well patronized, and proved a re- 
lief to the community, as the great cry in those early 
days was for something to eat. So D. A. Burrows 
has the credit of being the first vegetable peddler 
of Davenport. 

I had expected, when I came here, to turn my at- 
tention to farming, but found my wife too delicate 
for that mode of life, so concluded to go into some 
kind of mercantile business, in the spring. During 
the fall and winter I cut down some oak trees on my 
place, and hewed out a frame for the building I oc- 
cupied for so many years, on Front street. I then 
hired a carpenter, a Mr. Rumbold, and worked with 
him, and by the opening of navigation it was ready 
for occupancy. Early in March I started for Cin- 
cinnati, to see if I could not get some supplies for a 
store. I had no money. My little all was invested. 
I had a cousin, John A. D. Burrows, of Burrows & 
Hall, Pearl street, Cincinnati. They were the largest 
wholesale grocers of Cincinnati. He said: "Take 
all you want out of our stock." So I laid in a full 
supply of groceries. 

I also found a man who had received, in a trade, 
an old stock of boots and shoes, which had been well 
culled over. He wanted to sell to me, and would 
sell cheap, but I refused to purchase such an out- 
landish stock of goods. If he wished, however, I 
told him, I would take them on commission, and sell 
them on halves, which I did. I do not think he 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 25 

could have sold them in CinciDnati in one hundred 
years. 

During the summer of 1839, while the Rocking- 
ham feud was most intense, my wife was taken dan- 
gerously ill, from the fatigue and exposure to which 
she had been subjected. Davenport had two physi- 
cians, but neitlier of them seemed to do her any 
good; and as Dr. Barrows, then of Rockingham, was 
considered the ablest physician in the Territory, I 
determined to call him, Rockingham or no Rocking- 
ham, which was a very unpopular thing to do. I 
was warned that it was unsafe to employ him — I 
would have to watch him, as he would pocket every- 
thing he could lay his hands on. He was given 
about as good a character as Ben. Butler received in 
New Orleans during the late war. 

The good doctor responded promptly. My wife 
improved rapidly under his treatment, and from then 
until Dr. Fountain married my daughter, he was our 
family physician. The doctor was then in the prime 
of life, and stood at the head of his profession. 

In the early days of this county, the old settlers 
were a much more social and liberal community than 
the population of the present day. The pioneer was 
kind-hearted and generous, ever ready to assist and 
help. The needy settler always found an open hand 
and a kind heart in his neighbor, and if there was 
sickness in the family, or a cabin to be built, there 
were plenty of willing hands to assist. 

The pioneer settlers acted on the principle that 



26 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

"all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," and 
they had their seasons of fun and enjoyment; espe- 
cially was that the case in our long, dull winters. 
Sleighing parties, hunting parties, balls, and visiting 
one another, were frequent events; and the writer, 
while generally having as much business as he could 
attend to, will have to admit that he repeatedly 
neglected his business, in those days, and, filling 
his bob-sled full of clean straw, packed his wife and 
about a dozen other ladies in, like sardines, until the 
sled was filled, they sitting on the straw, and would 
then drive twenty or twenty-five miles, to spend the 
day with some pioneer friends, leaving early in the 
morning and returning at midnight — a jolly crowd. 
Farmers living on the Wapsie and at the Groves 
used to visit the city every week or two, generally 
on Saturday, and spend the day in trading, and, many 
of them, in drinking. Some of the stores, for the 
sake of drawing trade, kept barrels of whiskey in 
their warehouses, each barrel with a tin cup under 
it, where any one could help himself, free. There 
was no beer in those days, or there would have been 
less drunkenness. Burrows & Prettyman never sold 
a drop of liquor during their business career, and 
some farmers would not trade with us for that reason, 
and we informed them we did not care for their pat- 
ronage. We had all the business we wanted. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 27 



CHAPTEK VII. 

Struggles in the Meucantile Tbade — The First Store, 
AND How It was Stocked — Another Trip to Cincinnati 
— Rudimentary Banking in Davenport — Trade Begins 
to Pick Up. 

My little store, in the meantime, was taking root, 
and, in October, it was necessary for me to return to 
Cincinnati, to lay in my winter stock. I had suc- 
ceeded much better than either myself or friends 
expected, and I went to Cincinnati able to pay my 
friends who had kindly trusted me. I had no 
trouble in getting all the goods I wanted. My good 
cousin, John A. D. Burrows, has been dead many 
years, but I always looked upon him as my earliest 
benefactor. He was a noble, generous man — a man 
of means and large heart. His father was wealthy, 
and he himself was the head of the largest wholesale 
grocery in the city. He always seemed to take an 
interest in me. 

After selecting what I wanted in his line, he said, 
" John, do you think you could manage a stock of 
dry goods?" I said I thought I could, so he took 
ine in next door, to the establishment of A. VV. 
Sprague & Co., the largest wholesale dry goods 
house in the city, a branch of the great manufactur- 
ing firm of A. W. Sprague & Co., of Bhode Island. 
He said: 



28 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

" This is my cousin, J. M. D. Burrows, of Wis- 
consin Territory. He is just commencing business, 
and I want you to sell him a stock of dry goods. It 
is not likely that he can meet his notes promptly, 
but I will be responsible for all you sell him." 

They said "All right!" and we made an appoint- 
ment for the next morning, at ten o'clock. Turning 
to me, he said: 

" I shall select the goods, myself. You remember 
I was in the dry goods business once, and, besides, 
I do not like to trust you to their tender mercies." 

At the appointed hour we went in, and he selected 
a stock of dry goods for me, second to none in Dav- 
enport. 

Another great help to me, at this time, was the 
assistance I received from James Glaspell, Sr., the 
progenitor of the Glaspell family. He was an ex- 
cellent man; one of the salt of the earth — a man in 
whom there was no guile. He lived under the bluff, 
a half-mile below me. He called on me the day be- 
fore I left home, and said: "Neighbor Burrows, I 
want you to do me a favor. . You are going to Cin- 
cinnati. When I left Covington, Kentucky, I made 
an auction of my cattle, farming implements, etc. 
They were sold on a year's credit, and my agent 
writes to me that he has made some collections. 
Now, will you be so good as to cross over to Coving- 
ton, and get what money he has on hand? I shall 
not need it for some time, and if it is any help to 
you, you can use it." 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 29 

I collected about a thousand dollars, and used it 
in getting many articles I needed, outside the regu- 
lar line. I returned with the largest and best se- 
lected stock of goods in Davenport. 

When I reported to my neighbor, Glaspell, he 
seemed much pleased at the result, and said he prob- 
ably would not need his money for a year, and when 
he did, he would give me a month's notice. He 
would not receive any interest, considering that I 
was doing him a favor, as he was afraid to keep so 
much money in the house. During the year, having 
a large family, he took a good deal of it out in goods 
from the store. 

At this time, and for a number of years afterward, 
we had no bank. Some of our farmers had money 
that they were afraid to keep at their homes. Es- 
pecially was this the case at the Groves, and on the 
Wapsie, and even in Clinton County. The farmers, 
consequently, brought their money in and deposited 
it with me, the same as if I were a banker. This, 
when I was just starting and my means were limited, 
was a great help to my business. 

During the winter I did a good business. Having 
become acquainted in Clinton and Jackson Counties, 
I began to draw trade from there. 



30 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Servant Gikls Almost as Hard to Get in the Forties as 
They are Now — A Specimen Hunt for Help When it 
was Needed Badly — Help, when Found, was Better Then 
THAN Now, Though. 

I will mentiou one little incident that occurred in 
1840, showing the difficulties and hardships of those 
very early days. Female hired help was not to be 
obtained. I assisted my wife all I could — probably 
did as much house-work as she did. She was not 
strong, and was unaccustomed to such work. In 
July, my son, Elisha, was born. We had no help, 
but had been looking for a girl for months. Mrs. 
John Owens and Mrs. Ebenezer Cook, one living a 
mile above and the other a mile below our house, 
took turns in taking care of my wife and the child, 
one during the day-time, and the other at night; but 
they had to neglect their own families to do so. I 
knew this state of things could not last, and deter- 
mined to find help at any cost. Having no clerk yet 
in my store, I was obliged to lock it up, and, with 
the key in my pocket, rode three days all over the 
county, in search of a girl. 

The first day, I went up to Le Claire, canvassing 
Pleasant Valley thoroughly, but with no success. 
The next day I rode through the southern part of 
the county and Blue Grass, as far as there was any 
settlement, but all in vain. On this trip, I was told 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 31 

there was a family in Walnut Grove, where there 
were two grown daughters, who, it was understood, 
sometimes went to nurse sick neighbors. I deter- 
mined to go there, and, on leaving home the third 
day, told the ladies that it' I did not get back that 
night they need not be alarmed, as I would not re- 
turn without help. 

When I reached Walnut Grove, at about half -past 
eleven in the morning, I found the coziest and neatest 
farm-house I had yet seen in the Territory, and Mrs. 
Heller, with two full-grown, healthy looking daugh- 
ters, all as neat as wax. The house was better fur- 
nished than any I had seen. The window-curtains 
and bed-spread were as white as the driven snow. 
The floors shone like silver. I introduced myself, 
and made known my business. I told Mrs. Heller 
my situation was desperate — that I had come for 
one of her daughters, and would not go away with- 
out one. She said she would leave the matter alto- 
gether with their father, who was at work in the 
field, half a mile away. She invited me to sit down 
and wait until he came in to dinner, which would be 
in about half an hour. But I said: 

" My business is too important to admit of delay. 
I will go to the field." 

I found Mr. Heller cradling wheat, and not a 
stranger, as I supposed, for when we met we recog- 
nized each other, having been on a jury together, a 
few months before. I told my story in as few words 
as possible. 



32 FIFTY YFARS IN IOWA. 

He liuDg his cradle on the fence, and we went to 
the house, as it was about dinner-time. He said he 
would like to help me out of my trouble; that they 
were working hard to open a farm, and lie was not 
able to do much for his daughters, and whatever 
they earned they had to clothe themselves with; 
but they never had gone away from home except to 
help sick neighbors sometimes. He knew from what 
he had seen of me that I would treat them well, and 
he would be glad to have one of them go with me 
to relieve me. When we arrived at the house he 
told his daughters what I wanted, and that it would 
please him if one of them would go with me. The 
youngest one spoke up and said, " I will go;" and I 
was happy. She returned with me, and lived in my 
family seven years, until she married. My wife 
and myself always looked upon her as a sister or 
a child. She married one of the most respectable 
men of the day, an owner of a good farm and a 
meml)er of the State Legislature. They are both 
living in Davenport at the present time. That 
young woman is now nearly seventy years old. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 33 



CHAPTER IX. 

Beginning of the Produce Trade in Davenport — Buying 
Wheat and Hogs on a Venture — Success Despite the 
Discouraging Predictions of Friends — I Hire R. M. 
Pretty MAN. 

In the winter of 1840, I did as good a business 
as any one in the town. During the winter, our 
farmers were compelled to sell a little wheat and 
some pork, to obtain money to buy medicine, pay 
postage, etc. ; so that year, Horace Bradley, of Pleas- 
ant Valley, still living, brought to Davenport the 
first load of wheat that was ever sold in the town for 
commercial purposes. A few others were compelled 
to sell some dressed hogs. I bought that wheat, and 
I bought those hogs; and this was the commence- 
ment of the produce trade of Davenport. 

At that time, there were only some three or four 
stores in the little village. My brother merchants 
laughed at me. Some said I was a fool — " What is 
he going to do with the produce? " AVell, to tell the 
truth, I hardly knew, myself; but one thing I did 
know, and one thing I felt, that this country had to 
be settled up, and to accomplish this, some one must 
buy the farmers' surplus, or it would remain a wil- 
derness. So I made up my mind I would devote 
myself to this purpose, and I bought, that fall, all 
the surplus wheat and pork and other produce of- 
fered, 
s 



34 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

The wheat I hauled to the EockiDgham mill, and 
had it manufactured into flour, which, with my 
pork, white beans, etc., I took to Prairie du Chien, 
and sold to the Fur Company and the Indians. The 
Fur Company w^as controlled by a Mr. Dousman, 
whom I found to be a gentleman, and for a number 
of years he purchased produce of me every trip. I 
also sold poultry to the officers at Fort Crawford. 
My wife having raised, one year, seventy-five more 
turkeys than we needed, I took them to the Fort, 
and sold them for a dollar apiece. 

In the spring of 1841, D. C. Eldridge, who kept 
a hotel called the White Hall, on Main street, on the 
very ground now occupied by the Democrat news- 
paper building, introduced R. M. Prettyman to me 
as a very capable and worthy youug man, seeking 
employment; that he had been with him some time, 
but did not like his occupation ; he preferred a situ- 
ation in a business house. I had never seen him 
before. I told Mr. Prettyman that I had not in- 
tended employing any one at that time; that my 
business would not justify such an expense. It was 
growing rapidly, and I would soon be compelled to 
have some help. He said he would like to come 
with me, and I need not pay him anything until my 
business would justify it. I told him I would think 
of the matter, and that he might call the next morn- 
ing. 

I was then living on my claim, a mile from the 
store, but always had my store open about daylight — 



FIFTY YEAHS IN lOiVA. 35 

the first in town. I carried my dinner in a little tin 
pail, and did not get home until dark. I knew I 
needed him, but I was economizing, struggling to 
eet a foothold, and did not want to hire any one to 
do what I could do myself; yet I wisely concluded 
to engage him. He commenced at once, and I soon 
saw I had taken a wise step. 

That summer I visited the trading-posts above, 
a number of times. Fort Snelliug, Prairie du Chien, 
and Snake Hollow, in the lead regions, were my prin- 
cipal points. At that time Snake Hollow was about 
the best point I found in which to sell produce. Be- 
sides selling to the traders, I traded bacon, flour, 
beans, etc., with the Indians for feathers and bees- 
wax, which I sold in Cincinnati. I could now leave 
home on these expeditions, feeling all was right 
there, for a more honest, capable, and devoted man 
than R. M. Prettyman, no man ever had in his em- 
ploy. If he had owned the concern, he could not 
have been more devoted to its interests. At the 
end of the first month, I told him to credit himself 
with forty dollars as his first month's wages, which 
at that time was liberal compensation. 

The seed planted by the pioneers soon took root 
and began to spread. The produce business en- 
larged itself rapidly, and my great trouble was to 
know where to place the products. There was no 
Chicago then, not much of a market in St. Louis, 
and I had to make frequent trips to every landing 
north of Davenport as far as Port Snelling. St. 



36 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Paul at that time contained only a wood-yard and 
one log cabin, where the Indians got their whiskey 
and tobacco. 



CHAPTER X. 

A Trip North in 1841 — Trading with the Fur Company — A 
Perilous Journey Home, with Pogketsful of Gold — 
Nearly Drowned in a Canoe — The Suspected Farmer, 
AND THE Power of Prayer — A Stranger in the Dark — 
Home at Last. 

In the spring of iS-tl, I found my means all locked 
up in produce — corn, flour, pork, bacon, etc., — and 
that it would be necessary for me to realize on a 
good portion of my stock early, in order to replen- 
ish my store. The spiing was late that year, and 
it was well along in April before I could get a boat. 
At last I found the steamer Smelter, Captain Scribe 
Harris. The Captain said he was going up as far 
as Prairie du Chien, and I concluded to go with 
him. On our way up, we went into Snake Hollow, 
where I made a profitable sale. On my arrival at 
Prairie du Chien, I found the Fur Company had 
received no spring supplies, and was in need of pro- 
visions. During the forenoon I sold them my en- 
tire stock, all at fair prices, and received my pay, 
cash down, in gold and silver. 

Captain Harris, finding the AYisconsin River very 
high, decided to go up that stream, being offered a 
big lot of shot from a shot-tower up that river. He 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 37 

told me he might be gone a week. I was now in a 
quandary how to get home. There was no boat 
above, and none expected from below. On inquiry, 
I learned that at some Grove, about twelve miles 
from there, a stage would pass through at three 
o'clock next day. I made up my mind that I would 
take that stage. 

After breakfast, I procured some strong brown 
paper, went to my room and wrapped each piece of 
money separately, and then made them into small 
rolls, and loaded each pocket with all it would hold, 
and tied the rest in a strong handkerchief. I went 
back to the Fur Company's office and got them to 
exchange the silver for gold as far as they could. 

The great part of the Company funds paid out in 
those days was Spanish dollars. I was anxious to 
get my gold and silver home, as it was ten per cent 
premium, our paper currency being nothing but 
"wild-cat" issued at Green Bay. 

At eleven o'clock a.m., I took a lunch and started, 
going three miles down the river, where I struck the 
Wisconsin ferry. The river was booming high, and 
seemed to run with the velocity of a locomotive. 
I could find no ferryman. I rang the bell, off and 
on, for half an hour. The ferryman's canoe was 
there, with a good pair of paddles, and I saw that I 
would either have to go back or paddle myself over, 
so I launched that canoe and shoved off. 

I was never in a canoe before, and did not know 
how to handle it, but soon found that I had to sit 



38 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

very still, flat in the bottom, in the water, as it 
leaked. The canoe kept g )ing round and round, 
and every few minutes would dip some water. 
Meanwhile the current was conveying me swiftly 
down to the Mississippi. 

I thought I was lost. I would have given all my 
money to be safe on either shore, and why I was 
not drowned was always a mystery to me; but I sup- 
pose my time had not come. 

I noticed that as the canoe whirled around, each 
time brought me nearer to the shore. 1 also began 
to manage the paddles to better advantage, and 
soon struck the willows, which I caught, and pulled 
the canoe as near the shore as I could; then jumped 
overboard, and got on. dry land as soon as possible. 
After I had straightened u[) and let the watej- drain 
from my clothing, I set forward for the stage again. 
About a mile further on, I came to a small creek or 
stream. There was no bridge, and it could not be 
forded, as the banks were straiglit up and down. 
The water was fully four or five feet deep. After 
examining up and down the stream, I saw there 
was no way but to jump it. I chose the narrowest 
place I could find, pitched my bundle of money 
across, and then took a run and jumped! Just made 
it, and tiiat was all. 

As I struck the edge of the bank, one of my coat- 
pockets gave way, and fell, with its heavy contents, 
in four feet of water. I hunted up a forked stick, 
and, luckily, the lining having gone with the pocket. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. ' 89 

sooD fished it out, and made for the stage-house, 
which I reached without further trouble, ouly to find 
that the stage had gone! 

I then determined to make my way to Dubucjue 
on foot, where I hoped to get a boat. About dark, 
I saw a cabin just ahead, where 1 decided to stay all 
night. I was puzzled what to do with my money, 
as I feared I would be robbed — perhaps murdered. 
My first thought was to hide it in a pile of brush I 
saw near, but I was afraid some one would see me, 
so resolved to share its fate. 

On applying to the woman at the cabin for lodging, 
she referred me to her husband, who was at the 
barn. I interviewed him. He said I could stay. 
He was a rough-looking man, and I did not feel 
very safe. 

After he had taken care of the stock, we went to 
the house together. Supper wns nearly ready. I 
took a seat by the fire, with my bundle by my side. 
In a few minutes supper was announced, and I sat 
down at the table, carrying my bundle with me. 

Just then, two as hard-looking men as I ever saw 
came in and sat down at the table, eyeing me 
sharply. I was becoming a little alarmed, when 
the proprietor asked a blessing on the meal, and no 
human being can realize what a relief came to my 
mind. All anxiety about my money or my life 
passed away. 

Early next morning, at break of day, I was on the 
road again, determined to reach Dubuque some time 



40 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

that night. At noon it began to rain, but I per- 
severed. At sun-down I reached Parsons' Ferry, 
fifteen miles above Dubuque. Being on the Wis- 
consin side, it was necessary to cross there, and 
again I was troubled to arouse the ferryman. After 
nearly an hour, he answered my signal, and set me 
over. By this time it was pitch dark, and raining 
hard, and I had fifteen miles yet to make. I took the 
middle of the road. The mud was very deep, and 
the darkness so great a man could not be seen six 
inches from you. AVhile plodding along, with my 
bundle in one hand and a big club, which I used 
as a cane, in the other, I ran against a man. Neither 
of us saw the other. I never was a coward, but was 
never more startled in my life. My heart choked 
me so that I could not articulate plainly; but, with 
my club raised, I stammered out, " What do you 
want?" 

I saw, from his mumbling and- incoherent reply, 
that he was drunk, and I walked around him and 
pushed on my way. 

At eleven o'clock at night I reached Dubuque, 
having walked seventy-five miles in thirt3^-six hours. 
I was not acquainted in Dubuque, and. did not know 
where to find a hotel. After wandering about some 
time, I met a man whom I asked to direct me to the 
best tavern in the place. He did so, but as I did 
not know the names of the streets or the location, I 
could not find the house. I had become tired and 
bewildered, when I met another man. I said to 
him: 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 41 

" My friend, I wish to find the best hotel in town. 
I am a stranger, and have been hunting your town 
over for some time, up one street and down another, 
until I have become confused. Will you be kind 
enough to go with me and show me?" 

He cheerfully did so. It was a first-rate house; 
the best I had yet seen above St. Louis. I had a 
nice, clean room, all to myself, and the table was 
well provided for. I told the landlord he need not 
go to any trouble to cook anything for me; that 
although I had had nothing to eat since daylight, I 
would be satisfied with a cold lunch and a cup of 
hot coffee. On going to bed, I gave orders not to be 
called in the morning, unless there was a boat going 
down. 

I did not waken until noon the next day, when 
my landlord knocked at the door and said there was 
a boat at the landing, going down. I was so sore 
and stiff I could scarcely dress myself, and could 
only get down stairs by sliding down the banister. 
I found the boat would not leave until three o'clock, 
so told my kind landlord I would take dinner with 
him, instead of eating on the boat. 

We started toward night, and reached home the 
next forenoon. I was so lame and crippled for ten 
days that I had as much as I could do to attend to 
my business. 

Such were the trials and labors of a pioneer mer- 
chant of those early days. 



42 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTER XL 

Hard Times and Over-Production — Bidding for the Gov- 
ernment Contracts for Forts Snelling and Crawford — 
Timely Aid from Antoine Le Claire and Colonel Daven- 
port — The Atchison Brothers and Their Methods. 

The times were very hard then, and for some years 
after. Our land had just been brought into market 
by the Government, and all the money in the country 
went into the land office. Some of our best farmers 
paid fifty per cent for money to enter their lands, 
and were kept poor for years paying interest. 
Meanwhile they used all the money they could get 
hold of, to break, fence, and stock their farms, spend- 
ing as little as they could with the merchant, and 
what trading they did was generally on a year's 
credit. 

No one can realize the difficulties of doing a pro- 
duce business in those days. We had no railroads. 
Everything had to be moved by water, and, of course, 
had to be held all winter. To keep up with the 
rapid growth of the country and provide for the 
surplus, required not only money and credit, but, 
what in those days was more important than either, 
nerve. 

In the year 1841, I saw the amount of wheat and 
pork was going to be double as much as ever before, 
and I was very solicitous as to what I should do 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 43 

with it. I saw in the St. Louis Repuhlican that the 
Government invited proposals for furnishing Fort 
Snelling and Fort Crawford with a year's supply of 
pork, Hour, beans, soap, vinegar, candles, and 
numerous other articles. I considered the matter, 
and could think of no reason why Scott County 
could not furnish the pork, flour, beans, etc., as well 
as St. Ijouis, which had furnished them heretofore. 
So I decided to put in a bid, if I could find any one 
to go on my bonds, which were heavy. I inter- 
viewed Mr. Le Claire and Colonel Davenport, and 
told them what I was thinking of. If I could ac- 
complish it, and get a contract and fill it from home 
production, it would be a grand thing for both the 
town and the county, and be the means of circulat- 
ing a good deal of money, of which the people at 
that time were sadly in need. Those gentlemen, 
always ready and anxious to do anything that would 
settle up and advance the prosperity of the country, 
were much pleased with my suggestion, and said 
they would stand by me. 

I put in bids for both Forts, referring, as to my 
responsibility, to Colonel Davenport and Antoine 
Le Claire. As I was going to Cincinnati, I wrote to 
them that if my bids were accepted to address me 
there, as I wished to purchase in that market such 
supplies as could not be procured at home. On my 
arrival, I found a communication from the Depart- 
ment at Washington, saying my bid for Fort Snell- 
ing had been accepted. On my return home, I 



U FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

found that John Atchison, who had been the suc- 
cessful contractor of both Forts for two or three 
years previous, had been in town three days await- 
ing my return. I got home about dark. My wife 
tokl me that Ebenezer Cook had left word that I 
had better avoid meeting Atchison until I had seen 
Cook ; so after supper I walked down to Mr. Cook's 
house, about a mile on the Rockingham road. He 
informed me that Atchison was very anxious to buy 
me out. He did not care about furnishing the sup- 
plies so much as he did for the transportation. The 
Atchison Brothers owned the largest and most mag- 
nificent steamboat on the Upper Mississippi, called 
the "Amaranth." They had been very successful 
in controlling both the Government's and the Fur 
Company's freight, and my success was a great sur- 
prise to them. In the morning, Atchison made his 
appearance. I refused to sell, telling him my only 
object in taking the contract was to make an outlet 
for my winter accumulation. After talking the 
matter over all day, I sold out on these conditions: 
He to pay me a bonus of twenty-five hundred dol- 
lars, cash down ; T to furnish the flour, pork, and 
beans, for which he was to pay me contract price, 
less the transportation, and pay me cash down on 
delivery to his boat, the next June, the time speci- 
fied by the Government. 

I now went to work hauling my wheat to Rock- 
ingham mill, and scouring the country for hogs. 
My cooperage — pork, flour, and bean barrels — I 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 45 

had all manufactured at lioiiie, giving employment 
to a number of coopers. This, with the money I 
had received from Atchison and scattered among 
the farmers for hogs, wheat, beans, etc., gave our 
little village and the county a decided boom. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Orders Made and Countermanded by the Government — 
The Difficulty of Finding Hogs for Market ~ Another 
Deal with Atchison Brothehs — Dark Days for the 
Farmers — Success in the End. 

The Government, in making contracts, reserved 
the privilege of increasing or diminishing any arti- 
cle one-third, by giving sixty days notice. When I 
sold out to Atchison, in the fall, I wrote to the De- 
partment at Washington what I had done; that the 
Atchison Brothers had been contractors for a num- 
ber of years previous, and that the contract was in 
good hands. The Department replied that it had 
nothing to do with the Atchisons; that was a mat- 
ter between them and myself, the Government look- 
ing to me for the fulfillment of my contract 

In January, I received notice from Washington 
that the pork would be increased one-third. I im- 
mediately notified the Atchisons, and asked them if 
they wished me to furnish it, and on the same terms 
as the other. They replied that they did. I then 
went to work to canvass the whole county. The 



46 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

hog crop was about over. I rummaged Clinton, 
Jackson, Cedar, and Linn Counties, in Iowa, and 
Rock Island County, Illinois; also buying any pork 
I could find in the hands of the packers in Rocking- 
ham, and of John Seaman in Davenport. 

I succeeded in my efforts, and had the whole ready 
for delivery, when I received notice from the proper 
authorities that my pork contract was reduced one- 
third, to its original quantity. I received notice 
from the Atchisons, on the 1st of June, to be ready 
with my stuff, as the "Amaranth" would be along 
in a few days. She arrived according to appoint- 
ment. 

Ebenezer Cook, at that time, was my attorney and 
friend. He seemed much pleased witli my success 
in this contract. He had drawn up all my pa[)ers, 
both my proposals to the Government, and all 
others. He was a long-headed, shrewd man, and 
cautious in all his transactions. 

He said to me: "I have ascertained that the 
Atchisons are somewhat shaky. Don't you deliver 
until you are paid." 

When the boat landed, I pointed out the freight, 
and asked to be excused for a few minutes, and 
hurrying bfick to the store, I gave Prettyman the 
items and prices; told him to make out a bill as 
soon as possible, which was quickly done; and I 
took the bill, together with the agreement they had 
made with me, specifying they were to pay on 
delivery, and hurried to the boat. The Atchisons 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 47 

were just preparing to load. I presented my bill. 
Atchison said: "Well, I did not expect to pay 
until we returned." 

I told him til at would not suit me. My spring 
payments were past due. T had depended upon his 
paying me, according to his agreement, and i could 
not get along without it. After waiting nearly half 
a day, he said he had some money on the boat that 
he had promised some one in Galena. He would 
give me that, as far as it went, and a draft on St. 
Louis for the balance. I said if the St. Louis house 
was satisfactory, I would accept his proposition. 
The paper was all right — drawn on a first-class 
steamboat house, and was promptly paid. 

We loaded up that afternoon, and steamed up the 
river with the provisions for both Forts. I went up 
to Foit Snelling, and saw that my contract was filled 
to the letter. This operation, together with the 
little capital I had succeeded in accumulating be- 
fore, set me on my feet, and I was now able to walk 
instead of crawl. Besides the twenty-five hundred 
dollars bonus, I got one-third more for my pork 
than I could have got in the open market, as there 
was a heavy decline in provisions in the spring of 
that year. During the summer, good, sound, sweet, 
smoked shoulders would not net more than one cent 
a pound, and our steamboats bought more or less 
for fuel, saying they were cheaper than wood. 
Those were haVd times for both the farmer and 
the merchant: wheat selling from thirty to forty 



48 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

cents a bushel ; dressed hogs, one dollar to one dol- 
lar and fifty cents per hundred pounds ; nice dressed 
quails plenty at twenty-five cents a dozen ; dressed 
prairie-chickens at five cents each ; good fresh but- 
ter at five to eight cents a pound ; eggs, from three to 
five cents a dozen ; and many farmers paying fifty per 
cent for money which they had borrowed to enter 
their land. Those were dark days in Iowa, and 
there was no let up for a number of years. 

Besides what I had made on my pork, I made a 
reasonable profit on the flour and beans, and I was 
happy. I always considered this as the best and 
most successful operation I ever undertook, and it 
benefited Scott County as much as it did me, as the 
money I obtained was scattered all over the county 
paying for produce. A little money at that time 
went a great way and accomplished much good. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

My Introduction to Danietj T. Newoomb — A Hurried Night 
Ride to Muscatine — Mr. Newcomb's Hospitality and 
Enterprise — Some Early Real Estate Transactions in 
Davenport — The Newcomb Memorial Chapel — Mrs. 
Newcomb. 

In the spring of 1842, I had occasion to make a 
very sudden and unexpected visit to Muscatine. I 
left Davenport after dark with a horse and buggy, 
and it was necessary I should reach Muscatine by 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 49 

sunrise in the morning, to meet a certain steamboat. 
The night was fearfully dark, the road bad and full 
of stumps, and I made slow headway. About raid- 
night, when half way, I ran over a stump and was 
upset. I then concluded I would have to stop at 
the first house until daylight. I had never been 
over the road before, but seeing a log cabin on the 
bank of the river, near by, I began pounding at the 
door. Presently I heard some one moving about 
up stairs. The window was shoved up, and a pro- 
truding head said: 

"What do you want?" 

I replied: "I want to stay all night." 

He said: "Who are you?" 

I answered: "J. M. D. Burrows, of Davenport." 

He replied: "Oh, yes, I've heard of you." 

There was some whispering up stairs, after w hich 
he said: "Wait a few minutes; I will let you in." 

Soon Daniel T. Newcomb appeared. I had never 
seen nor heard of him before, but that night was 
the beginning of a friendship that lasted until death 
ended it. I noticed, on my entrance, that I was in 
the home of a person of means and refinement. The 
surroundings were more luxurious than any I had 
seen in this new country. At daylight I was under 
way, and reached Muscatine soon after sunrise, 
which answered my purpose, I called on my way 
back, and renewed the acquaintance of the day be- 
fore. I found Mr. Newcomb a very intelligent man, 
largely engaged in farming. He was opening more 



50 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

land than any one I had yet found. He was very 
enthusiastic, and spared neither labor nor money in 
his operations. He was a man of means, even in 
those days. He was the first to introduce labor- 
saving machinery in these parts — threshers, reapers, 
headers, etc. ; and as I soon was engaged extensively 
in wheat-raising, I received a good deal of help and 
instruction as to handling and operating these im- 
plements. Mr. Newcomb always seemed to have a 
warm feeling for me. He raised more grain than 
any one else in this section ; his one farm at Durant 
producing, one year, thirty thousand bushels, and he 
had so much confidence in me that he would sell his 
grain to no one else. This, in those primitive times, 
was a great help to me. 

In 1842, when he bought the four-acre tract on 
Brady street, Davenport, which Mrs. Newcomb con- 
tinued to make her home after his death, he con- 
sulted me several times as to the wisdom of the 
purchase. A Mr. Perry had come here from Can- 
ada. His family was not satisfied, and wished to 
return to their old home. Mr. Perry owned eighty 
acres of land in East Davenport, since purchased by 
A. C. Fulton. Mr. Perry also owned the four-acre 
tract on Brady street, and had put up a house on 
the lot at a cost of one thousand dollars. The house 
is still standing, in the rear of the First Presbyterian 
Church. Mr. Perry offered to sell the house and 
the four acres for twelve hundred dollars, which 
was considered the cheapest property in town. But 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 51 

there was no money, Mr. Nevvcoiiib being about the 
only man who liekl any of the "filthy lucre." He 
was a very cautious man, always thinking twice 
before acting. He intended to move to Daven- 
port soon, but seriously questioned the prudence of 
investing so much money in four acres of land. I 
advised him to close the sale by all means, saying 
the property was cheap, and never would ])e worth 
less. He said he had not been fortunate in town- 
lot speculations. He had invested some in Ca- 
manche and Wapello, and some other plaxjes, which 
he regretted. He finally purchased the Brady- 
street property. I think he got a reduction of one 
hundred dollars, which gave him the house and four 
acres for eleven hundred dollars. 

Some years before his death he put up the com- 
fortable and commanding residence, ever since 
known as the Newcomb mansion. The view is en- 
chanting. The noble Mississippi, the Island, Rock 
Island City, and a large part of Davenport, are 
spread out before you like a picture. 

Mrs. Newcomb is a remarkable woman, of great 
business talent and judgment, and always has man- 
aged her large estate as well as any attorney could 
do for her. She is very liberal. She purchased 
several lots in Northwest Davenport, on which she 
erected the " Newcomb Memorial Chapel," in mem- 
ory of her husband. This she gave to the Presby- 
terian Church for a mission Sunday-school. She 
also presented to the Academy of Sciences the lot 



52 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

now occupied by the society, besides contributing 
to many other charitable objects. Her private ben- 
efactions have been numerous, and are known only 
to the recipients. Although well advanced in years, 
she is the same noble, queenly woman she was 
when I first knew her, nearly fifty years ago. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Opening of 1843 — An Unprofitable Speculation in White 
Beans — Low Water in the Fall — To St. Louis in a Flat- 
boat — A Rough Journey Back — The Mormon Prophet's 

Assistance. 

In 1843, produce was so low, and freight so high, 
on account of low water, that produce netted me a 
loss. I have spoken repeatedly of white beans in 
this book. At that early day there was a great 
demand for them, mostly for the Indians and the 
trading-posts above. The land was new and clean, 
and the farmers used to sow them broad-cast, the 
same as wheat. That year there was an unusual 
crop, and the quality was very superior. I had 
more than I knew what to do with, so thought I 
would try the New Orleans market. I put up one 
hundred barrels of the choicest white beans I ever 
saw. They were perfect — all of one size — and 
looked as if they had been cast in a mould. New 
Orleans was a good market for beans, they being 
needed for the negroes, and I made great calcula- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 63 

tioiis on my speculation, expecting to make a small 
fortune. The beans only cost me forty cents a 
bushel, and the barrels thirty-five cents each. Well, 
I lost money on them; they did not sell for enough 
to cover cost and transportation. Such returns were 
not encouraging, either to the farmer or to the mer- 
chant. 

In the fall of 1843, as I said before, the low 
prices and the high freight, caused by low water, 
almost put a stop to navigation, and I was subjected 
to constant loss in making my fall shipments, so I 
resorted to an experiment. T procured a first-class, 
A No. 1 keel-boat with a large cargo-box upon it. I 
never saw a better or a safer one. It was as good 
as a steamboat. I put in a heavy load, as much as 
the state of the river would permit, and hired a 
steamboat to tow her to St. Louis, I assuming all 
expense of lightening at the Lower Rapids. When I 
had sold out and discharged my cargo in St. Louis, 
I loaded her with my winter stock of goods, putting 
in 'an unusual stock of salt, which article was very 
scarce and high, that fall, in all our river towns, on 
account of the low water. 

The season was now getting pretty well advanced, 
and I was anxious to return, but could not get a 
boat to tow me for nearly a week. I at last secured 
one, the captain of which said he would tow me to 
Keokuk for certain, and to Davenport if he could 
get there, as he had freight to deliver between the 
rapids. Before we reached Keokuk, the weather 



54 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

turned cold, and ice began to form. It took me two 
days to lighten up my barge. I finally got safely to 
Montrose, and loaded up again. In the meantime, 
the steamboat had been floundering on the rapids, 
not able to get over. She at last gave it up, and I, 
after waiting another day, finding it growing colder, 
with no prospect of a boat from any quarter, hired 
a team, and, loading it up with goods, started for 
Davenport, leaving a crew of three good men whom 
I had brought with me. I instructed them to live 
in the boat and take good care of things until I 
could go home and send teams. The road was 
rough, but well frozen. 

On reaching the Iowa River, it was very dark, and 
the ice not being considered very safe, I thought it 
imprudent to cross that night, as I knew the ice 
would be much stronger in the morning There 
was a good farm-house at the crossing, and I or- 
dered the teamster to put up for the night, and in 
the morning start for Davenport, but that I was go- 
ing to Muscatine that night. I hired a horse and 
saddle of the man -who was to keep the teamster, 
and promised to send it back when he returned. 
Just after I got safely over the river it began to 
rain heavily, and I do not think I ever experienced 
a colder rain. There were three or four inches of 
spowon the ground, and my horse's feet balled badly. 

After I had made about five miles, the horse stum- 
bled and fell, pitching me over his head. He got 
on his feet before I did, and would not let me catch 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 55 

him. After trying for some time, I had to give it 
up as a bad job, so abandoned him and shoved on 
afoot. A few miles further on, I descended the bluif 
and struck Muscatine Island. There was a nice- 
looking house at the foot of the bluff, where I ap- 
plied for shelter. The people informed me they 
could not keep me, but if I went half a mile farther, 
I would find good accommodations. About mid- 
night I found the house, being almost perished with 
wet and cold and fatigue. I had no trouble to get 
accommodations, and the man of the house, renew- 
ing the fire, made me as comfortable as he could. 
Hanging my clothes by the fire to dry, I went to 
bed. Next morning, though it was still raining, I 
hired my host to hitch up his team and take me to 
Muscatine. 

The first man I met there was a Davenporter, my 
friend William Van Tuyl. 

I said: "Where on earth did you come from, 
Van?'^ 

He said: "I came from Davenport this morn- 
inor." It was then noon. 

"When are you going back?" I asked. 

He said: "It is such a bad day I shall not go 
until to-morrow." 

I replied: "I must be in Davenport to-night, and 
I guess you'll have to take me." 

He answered, laughingly: "As long as I can se- 
cure such good company, I guess I will." 

After a good dinner we started, and by bed-time 



56 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

we were safe at home. It was Saturday night. I 
told Van Tuyl that I wanted twenty teams Monday 
morning to go to the Lower Rapids. He said to 
count him in for one — he woukl be on hand. 
During Monday, the team I had left at the Iowa 
River arrived. The teamster said when they got 
up in the morning, the first thing they saw was the 
horse I had hired. He was all right. 

Monday morning, as soon as we could gather the 
teams, Mr. Prettyman, with his pockets full of 
money to pay expenses, and an escort of twenty-two 
wagons, at an expense of two dollars and fifty cents 
each and expenses paid, started for Montrose for 
the goods. The rain still continuing, the roads 
constantly became worse, until they were almost 
bottomless, and in many places on the bottoms the 
teams had to double to pull the empty wagons 
through. After a tedious time they arrived in 
Montrose. The men said it was useless to load up 
until the weather turned cool enough to freeze the 
ground, and as that was uncertain, Mr. Prettyman 
crossed over to Nauvoo, and asked the Mormon 
prophet, Joe Smith, what he would charge to tow 
the barge up with his steamboat, the " Nauvoo." 
Smith said that as his boat was frozen up in a 
slough, it would be expensive getting her out, but 
finally agreed to tow the barge up for five hundred 
dollars. Prettyman told him to get his boat out as 
soon as possible, and sent the teams home, empty. 
The good steamer " Nauvoo," with the barge, landed 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 57 

at our wharf about noon, the day before Christmas; 
the teams did not get back until two or three days 
later. The great expense we had been put to did 
not leave us much profit on our winter's business. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Formation of the Firm of " Burrows & Prettyman " — More 
Low Water in the Mississippi — Another Trip by Flat- 
boat to St. Louis — Disastrous Journey to New Orleans 
with a Cargo of Potatoes. 

In the spring of 1844, a Mr. Samuel Fisher, liv- 
ing in Davenport and keeping a store in Eock 
Island, offered Mr. Prettyman a half interest in his 
store if he woidd take charge of it. Mr. Prettyman 
informed me of the proposition. He said he did 
not wish to leave me, but thought he ought to do 
the best he could for himself. I said: 

"Yes, a man ought to do what he thinks is best 
for his own interest. You have been clerking for 
me three years. We have never had any disagree- 
ment. I should hate to part with you; in fact, don't 
think I could get along without you." 

I added that I wished to think the matter over 
for a few days, and would then decide. I knew I 
could never get a man in whom I could have such 
confidence as I had in Prettyman. No one could be 
more faithful and honest. My business was increas- 

8 



58 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

ing rapidly, and I required not only competent help, 
but plenty of it. 

In a few days I told Mr. Pretty man that if he 
preferred to stay with me as my partner instead of 
going with Fisher, I had concluded he could do so; 
and that I had to go to Cincinnati and New Orleans 
to close out my winter accumulations of produce 
and lay in a spring supply for the store, which 
would take until the first of July. He accepted my 
proposition and became my partner; the firm of 
"Burrows & Prettyman " commencing July 1, 1844. 

The low water, high freight, and extreme low 
prices ruling for produce that spring compelled me 
to again look around for some way to get my stuff 
to market without a sacrifice. I built the largest and 
best flat-boat that was ever at our landing, before or 
since. I loaded her with pork, bacon, lard, beans, 
oats, corn, and brooms. I also bought another good, 
strong boat, not so large, which I found at Le 
Claire, and loaded it entirely with potatoes, which 
were scarce and high that year. I loaded her with 
twenty-five hundred bushels, at fifty cents a bushel. 
New Orleans quotations being at that time two dol- 
lars a bushel. I sent my boats forward, with the 
intention of following and overtaking them before 
they reached St. Louis. 

By inquiring of steamboats, I kept track of them, 
and when I thought they were near their destina- 
tion, I started and overhauled them at about the 
mouth of the Illinois River. The captain of the 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 59 

boat I was on pat me on board, and I went with 
them to the city. I did not offer my cargo for sale 
there, as it was intended for the New Orleans mar- 
ket. A party was anxious to buy my boat-load of 
potatoes, offering me fifty cents a bushel, and one 
hundred dollars for the boat, which was exactly 
what they had cost me at home ; consequently, I did 
not sell. The New Orleans market quotations were 
still two dollars a bushel. My pilot said it would 
cost no more to take the two boats than one, as we 
could lash them together. 

When I got ready to start, I found I could not 
get any insurance, as they were not in the habit of 
insuring flat-boats on the Upper Mississippi in those 
days. On the Ohio, a large business was done with 
flat-boats, and no trouble to get insurance; but St. 
Louis companies had not advanced that far. I did 
not dare to send them forward without insurance, as 
my capital was all there. After two days solicita- 
tion, through the influence of my friend, James E. 
Woodruft', who was one of the directors and a very 
influential man, the company agreed to take the 
risk if I would go with the boats and take charge 
of them in person. This changed all my arrange- 
ments. I had intended to see the boats safely off, 
and then return home, where I expected to remain 
a month before starting for New Orleans. Mr. 
Pretty man and my family expected me back in a 
week, and I wrote to them that I should be gone 
two months. We found the trip very tedious — had 



60 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

to lay up at niglit, and were often wind-bound two 
or three days at a time. When we reached Mem- 
phis, I thought I would try to sell my potatoes. I 
found there was no demand, the market being over- 
stocked. Potatoes had been selling at two dollars a 
bushel, but the high price had induced such heavy 
shipments that the market was glutted, and the best 
offer I got was twenty-five cents a bushel; so I 
pulled out. 

The next place was Yicksburg. The market there 
was no better, nor was it at Natchez. After six 
weeks, we arrived safely at New Orleans, to find a 
dull market — potatoes, no sale. The place was full 
of potatoes, in willow hampers, from France. After 
a good deal of effort, I traded my whole cargo of 
potatoes to the captain of a Bermuda vessel, at ei(jht 
cents a bushel, delivered on board, which was just 
nothing at all, as it cost me all of that to sprout, 
barrel, and deliver them; and I had to take coffee 
in payment. 

I soon sold out my other cargo, but at vory low 
prices, and after buying a stock of goods at Cincin- 
nati and St. Louis, for the new firm of Burrows & 
Prettyman, I put my face homeward. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 61 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Moke Business Kevekses in 1845 — The Rockingham Mill 
Fiasco— The Specious Boom in Wheat fok England — 
The Boom Collapses — Heavy Losses by Burrows & Pret- 
tyaian — Ouii Transactions with Henning & Woodruff — 
Better Times Set In. 

In 1845, Rockingliam having exploded, and all 
her merchants withdrawn, and her mill standing 
idle, I was induced to lease the mill for two years, 
and also to put a stock of goods there, which we 
placed in charge of William Van Tuyl. The first 
year we operated the Rockingham mill was, I think, 
the most disastrous I ever experienced. It was 
thought, in the fall of 1845, and during the winter, 
that there was going to be a large foreign demand 
for breadstuffs, on account of a great deficiency in 
the English crops, and there was a great specula- 
tion in breadstuffs in this country. At this time 
we were doing business with the heaviest produce 
house in the United States, composed of Henning 
<fe Woodruff, of St. Louis, John O. Woodruff & Co., 
of New Orleans, and James E. Woodruff & Co., of 
New York City, — it being all one house, and you 
could ship to either branch you preferred. It was 
a concern of unlimited means, and the senior part- 
ner, James E. Woodruff*, was the best business 
friend I ever had, and he was also the best business 
man I ever knew. 



62 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

When I first became acquainted with him, in 
1842, they had not established their New York 
house, and he was the manager of the St. Louis 
establishment, where 1 made his acquaintance. He 
was a large operator. He thought there would be a 
large advance in the prices of breadstuffs before 
spring, to supply the deficiency in the English 
market, and wrote me repeatedly, urging me to buy 
every barrel of flour we could find, and all the wheat 
and other provisions, and that we were at liberty to 
draw on him for one hundred thousand dollars for 
that purpose. If we were afraid to buy on our own 
account, he said to buy for him. He urged us so 
strongly and persistently, that we followed his ad- 
vice, buying on our own account. I visited every 
point, myself, as far as Dubuque, and bought every 
barrel of flour, and all the grain I could find, in 
New Albany, Savannah, Galena, and Dubuque, be- 
sides a large amount of provisions. We also sent 
an agent on the ice above Dubuque, to visit every 
point and buy all the flour and grain he could find 
in store. Consequently, at the opening of naviga- 
tion we controlled the larger part of the produce in 
store above Davenport. 

Then came trouble and disaster. The United 
States declared war against Mexico that spring, and 
everything collapsed. Prices tumbled more than 
one-half. The only way we could get to the sea- 
board was by the river to New Orleans, and by sea 
to New York, and the excitement then raging about 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 63 

privateers on the ocean almost suspended shipping. 
Insurance on the ocean advanced to ten per cent. 

Soon after the opening of navigation, I began to 
move my winter accumulation, as I could see no 
prospect of any change for the better. I thought 
best to face the music at once. Our flour, in store 
on the river, had been bought at from four dollars 
to four dollars and fifty cents per barrel, and the 
wheat at an average of sixty cents a bushel. On 
arriving at St. Louis, the nominal price of Hour was 
two dollars to two dollars and twenty-five cents a 
barrel, but no buyers; wheat, forty cents a bushel, 
for which there was a small local demand. Selling 
what wheat we could, we sent our fiour and surplus 
wheat to New York, where it fared worse. Most of 
the flour became sour on the trip, and did not net 
us over one dollar per barrel, and wheat twenty-five 
cents a bushel. When all closed out. Burrows & 
Prettyman found themselves nearly bankrupt. I do 
not think we could have paid over twenty-five cents 
on the dollar, if we had been forced to close up. 

The first year of our Rockingham mill operation 
did not leave us much courage for the next year's 
business; but as we had leased the mill for two 
years, we were compelled to run it. Our wheat crop 
for that year was good, but prices were ruinously low 
— wheat selling as low as twenty-five to thirty cents a 
bushel, and no money in it at that. When the fall 
trade commenced, and our farmers wanted to thresh, 
I found Mr. Prettyman badly demoralized. He 



64 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

thought we were ruined; said we had better let pro- 
duce alone and stick to the store. This was the 
only time in our whole partnership that we differed 
in our business views. I did not blame him. I 
was as much disheartened as he was, but I knew our 
only salvation was in fighting our way through. 
After a few days of indecision, I said to Mr. Pretty- 
man: 

"The season is advancing, and our delay will 
ruin us. I do not want to force you to do what 
your judgment does not approve, but I have made 
up my mind. I am going to commence buying 
produce as usual, and will start up the mill. You 
are our book-keeper. Charge all produce to my 
private account, with all expense of labor, etc. I 
will take the risk. Any other course would be 
suicidal." 

That ended the matter, and he said: 

" If you think it safe, and we can go on, it is all 
right." 

We immediately sent word throughout the country 
that we would pay the highest prices for produce, 
half cash and half to be applied on debts or in 
payment for goods. Everything was low. We paid 
thirty cents a bushel for wheat, half cash and half 
goods and for debts, or where the party was com- 
pelled to have all money, we paid twenty-five cents 
a bushel, which, at liio time, was more than it 
would net to ship to a:iy other market. 

We told our farmers we were. J^ard up; that our 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 65 

means were all locked up in what they owed us, and 
urged them to pay up as promptly as possible. 
About this time I received a long letter from Wood- 
ruff, reviewing the situation. He had just arrived 
home from New York. He wrote me he was glad 
we were going to persevere, and believed we would 
soon retrieve all our losses. He thouglit the coming 
season would be successful ; said that most of the 
dealers were broken up, and those who remained 
would buy at safe prices. He stated that E. K. 
Collins, a wealthy brother-in-law of his, a rich Quaker 
of New York City, the owner of that splendid line of 
ocean steamers, the Collins Line, running from New 
York to Liverpool, had promised him he would carry 
him through this crisis, and he added: "I am going 
to carry Billings, of Beardstown, on the Illinois River, 
Walker, of Burlington, and your firm through." 

Well, everything went forward as usual. When 
we went to renew our fall stock of merchandise. 
Woodruff generously advanced us what we lacked to 
meet our fall payments; and, what was more, told me 
to be prudent, and as money was going to be very 
close that winter, and hard to get, not to use any 
more than I could help, but to buy anything I 
could see a profit on, and he would furnish the 
means. He also recommended that if we could 
manage to store what produce we had at home, not 
to ship any more until spring, as everything was so 
low that -our fall freights left no margin. This 
advice made money for us, as everything in the 
spring was three times as high as in the fall. 

9 



66 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTEK XVII. 

Ketrieving the iLii-LUCK OF 1845 — A Big Speculation in 
Wheat that Paid Enormous Profits — The Rockingham 
Corn Deal — Corn a Glut in the Market — Selling out 
Cheap. 

During the winter, people began to get over their 
scare of the previous season, and a good foreign 
demand springing up, prices, toward spring, began 
to advance. Before the advance fairly began. Wood- 
ruff, foreseeing what was going to happen, urged 
me to send out an agent at once and buy everything 
I could above us, and I did so, employing the same 
man that I had the year before, Edward Davidson, 
a first-rate business man. He bought largely. 
People, remembering the disaster of the year be- 
fore, were willing sellers. About this time hogs 
had begun to be so plenty, and we were packing so 
extensively, that my winters were occupied mostly 
overseeing that branch of industry ; so I was obliged 
to employ an agent to make those trips abroad. 

One bitter cold, stormy day, about the first of 
February, there was nothing doing; no farmers in 
town, and I was tired of sitting around the stove. 
I put on my overcoat, and said to Mr. Prettyman, " I 
will go out and try to buy what wheat there is in 
town." 

I first called on Charles Lesslie, at the corner of 
Front and Brady streets. He had a small ware- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. G7 

house hill of very choice wheat, mostly raised by 
the Browiilies, at LoDg Grove, who, at that time, 
were considered the best farmers in the county. 
After considerable talk, I bought him out. 1 agreed 
to pay him sixty cents a bushel, and to take the 
wheat away any time I pleased between then and 
the 1st of May, and pay for it when removed. There 
were about twenty-five hundred bushels. Soon 
afterward, in April, I sold the lot to a St. Louis 
speculator for one dollar and twenty-five cents a 
bushel. All the expense I had was to sack the 
wheat and deliver it to the boat, the buyer to furnish 
the sacks. 

I then called on William Inslee and bought what 
he had, paying the same price, and he had about 
the same amount. Whisler then occupied the lot 
at the corner of Front and Main streets, and had a 
large warehouse, which, as he was a large dealer, 
was pretty well filled. I also bought him out, pay- 
ing the same price. 

This closed out all the wheat in town. T went 
])ack to the store well satisfied with my forenoon's 
work. As I afterwards sold it for double what I 
paid for it, we made about five thousand dollars in 
the operation. 

AVe found, at the opening of navigation, that we 
had on hand a larger supply of breadstuff's than any 
other person on the river. The profits on fiour 
made in the fall and held over, and that made from 
thirty-cent wheat, bought in the early part of the 



(58 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

winter, was simply enormous — Hour costing us two 
dollars a barrel, selling for seven dollars. As we 
could well afford to sell, in the spring we put our 
stuff on the market as rapidly as possible, and by 
July 1 had paid every dollar we owed, and had 
money to our credit in the hands of Heuning & 
Woodruff, with which, as we did not need it, we 
proposed to put up a flouring mill in Davenport. 
The town thus far had neither a flour mill nor a 
saw-mill. We intended to give her both, which I 
will refer to hereafter. 

The first year we operated the Rockingham mill, 
1845, there being a large surplus of corn, to accom- 
modate our customers living in the southern part of 
the county, we purchased a large quantity, to be de- 
livered at Rockingham, paying ten cents a bushel. 
We filled every empty dwelling-house in the place 
— and there were a good many, the inhabitants hav- 
ing left the town in her adversity. Burrows & 
Prettyman, while they opposed Rockingham in her 
prosperity, stood by her in her last days, and were 
the last to operate her mill, and sold the last goods 
in her territory. 

The price of corn, in the spring, would not permit 
our transporting it to any market, the cost of the 
gunny-bags and freight being more than the corn 
would bring. There was one house we were com- 
pelled to vacate on the first of June, as the owner 
wanted to remove it to Davenport. As we could not 
ship it, we sold it to a farmer, George Hawley, of 



FIFTY YEARS IN lOWA. 69 

Pleasaut Valley (one thousand bushels, at eight 
cents a bushel), and took an old horse in payment, at 
eighty dollars. Hawley hauled the corn to his farm 
for feed, it being cheaper than he could raise it. 

Such were the dangers and difficulties of the pro- 
duce business the first eight years in Iowa. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Advent of the Germans in Davenport — A Sturdy and 
Industrious Race — Outbreak of the Cholera — Many 
Fatal Cases — To St. Louis Overland — Hard Traveling 
ON the Home Trip — Some Facetious Young Men, and 
Who Laughed Last — Seasons of Hard Work. 

About this time there was a prospect of brighter 
days. Our German fellow-citizens began to come 
to Davenport in large numbers, and many of them 
possessed a good deal of money, which the country 
sadly needed. They entered large tracts of land, 
which they immediately improved. 

This year the cholera prevailed in Davenport, 
and many of the German immigrants had ship-fever 
among them. They came by the way of New Or- 
leans; every steamboat landing at our wharf left 
some. There was much excitement on account of 
the cholera. Many of our best citizens were dying. 
A man would ])e well at bed-time, and dead before 
morning. Many immigrants could not get shelter, 
and Burrows & Prettyman threw open their pork- 



70 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

house and warehouse for use until the immigrants 
could put up shanties on the prairie. Many men, 
now wealthy farmers, occupied our buildings until 
they could do better; among tiiese I remember M. 
J. Rohlfs, since then Treasurer of Scott County for 
ten years; also N. J. Rusch, afterward State Sena- 
tor, and Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa. I always 
have had a warm feeling for the Germans for their 
help in settling up Scott County, when help was so 
much needed. It is astonishing to see what they 
have accomplished. You can find scarcely a Ger- 
man farmer who is not wealthy. The banks of 
Davenport contain about six millions of deposits 
(which, I believe, is as much as all the rest of the 
State claims to have), and half of the money is 
owned by Germans. 

In the fall of 1(S45, after navigation was closed 
on the river, I found it would be necessary for me 
to go to St. Louis. Prettyman said our sales had 
been large, and we would be out of many leading 
articles before spring, and if I could manage to get 
them here, he wished I Avould buy some. I told 
him to make up a list of dry goods such as he 
needed, about a good wagon-load, and I would 
bring them up. 

I went over to Beardstown, on the Illinois River, 
by stage, and down the Illinois and Mississippi 
Rivers by steamboat, to St. Louis. In St. Louis, 
after my business was transacted, I purchased Mr. 
Pretty man's bill of goods, and shipped them by the 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 71 

river to Keokuk, as the boat was to go no farther. 
We did not get there on account of ice, but the 
boat landed us four miles below, at a small town 
called Warsaw, on the Illinois shore. 

When we left St. Louis it was dark, and I did 
not see any one I knew on the boat. The first 
thing I did in the morning, after breakfast, was to 
frake a walk on the guards to get fresh air. I soon 
heard familiar voices on the deck below, and on 
going down, saw seven young men from Pleasant 
Valley, customers of ours, among whom I can only 
remember George Hawley and two of the Fenno 
boys. They had been down to St. Louis with two 
flat-boats loaded with onions, and were then in a 
dilemma as to how they were to get home. They 
wanted to know what I was going to do. I told 
them I should hire a team to haul my goods, and 
would ride on the wagon. When the boat landed 
us, I found and hired a team. The boys wanted me 
to let them put on their baggage. The teamster 
said it would overload us ; but they were so anxious, 
and being good customers of ours, I told the team- 
ster if he would carry their baggage I would walk 
with the men. 

We reached Carthage, the county-seat, at noon, 
and stopped and got dinner, by which time a heavy 
storm gf rain and sleet set in. The men wanted to 
lay over until the next day, but I insisted upon 
pushing on ; so we all put out during the afternoon 
and traveled until dark, when we put up at a farm- 



72 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

house. I overheard the boys, in the afternoon, say- 
ing I conkl not stand it long — that they would soon 
have "my hide on the fence." I thought to myself, 
" We will see." 

We started out next morning in a snow-storm, cal- 
culating to make Monmouth that night. When we 
got within five or six miles of that place the men 
began to give out, saying they could travel no 
farther. George Hawley and myself were the only 
ones to get through, which we did about nine o'clock 
that night. I hired the landlord to send out a two- 
horse wagon and pick up the other men and bring 
them in. He found them scattered along the road 
for miles, completely exhausted. I said nothing, 
but wondered whose hides ornamented the fence. 

The next day we arrived home safely, having 
walked the whole distance in a heavy storm, all 
travel-worn, sore, and weary. It was about as hard 
a trip as the one I made from Prairie du Chien to 
Dubuque, some years before. 

I had been packing considerable pork for a few 
years, and I sold it mostly to the Fur Company and 
to parties filling Indian contracts. The wheat I 
handled, from 1840 to 1845, that I did not get made 
into fiour, I bought on commission for a large mill 
in Cincinnati — C. S. Bradbury & Co's. 

Our business had now (1847) become well-estab- 
lished, large amounts of produce coming in from 
the counties of Cedar, Linn, Jones, Clinton, and 
Jackson. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 73 

Our store was well patronized, and we hardly 
ever closed it until midnight. In the forenoons, 
the farmers in our county, from the Groves and 
points within a circuit of ten or fifteen miles, would 
come in with their grain, etc., and by the time they 
had unloaded and done their trading, another section 
would begin to arrive from Clinton and Cedar 
Counties and the territory still farther distant — a big 
day's travel — and would not all get in until near bed- 
time. They wanted to unload and do their trading, 
so as to start home early next morning, that they 
might reach home the same day. This made our 
business very laborious. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

ARRivAii OF A. 0. Fulton and a Kemarkable Stock of Goods 
— Mr. Fulton's Attempts to Revolutionize Local Com- 
merce — A Great Boom in Onions, and Why It Failed to 
Boom — Other Schemes Like Those of Colonel Mulberry 
Sellers — The Glorious Conquest of Santa Anna. 

In July, 1842, A. C. Fulton made his appearance 
in Davenport. He possessed great activity and 
energy, and was a good citizen in his way; but many 
of his early ventures did not indicate an aptness for 
mercantile life. He brought with him a bankrupt 
stock of dry goods, etc., purchased in New Orleans. 
They were as heterogeneous a lot of articles as 
ever were landed in the town. He told me at the 

lO 



74 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

time that they were bankrupt goods, and that when 
he purchased them, instead of having them invoiced, 
as customary, he had taken them in a "lump," at 
"so much for what is on this side of the house, and 
so much for that side," and so on. A great deal of 
the stuff was unsalable. It was said that in the 
stock were two barrels of fish-hooks — enough to 
supply the Davenport trade for one hundred years. 
After Mr. Fulton had sold what goods he could, not 
wishing or not being able to renew his trade, Bur- 
rows & Prettyman bought him out, paying about 
two thousand dollars, and mixed the goods in their 
stock. 

Mr. Fulton had arrived in Davenport in the latter 
part of July. After opening his goods in a small 
room at Second and Rock Island streets, he immedi- 
ately announced to the suffering inhabitants that 
goods were twenty-five to thirty per cent too high, 
and produce twenty-five to thirty per cent too low. 
Of course, that was good news to the inhabitants, 
and brought Mr. Fulton into notice with a jump. 
He at once pitched into the onion crop, then grow- 
ing. He said he would contract for the onions at 
fifty cents a bushel. We had not been in the habit 
of contracting for onions at any price, but generally 
bought at the market value, which then ruled at 
twenty to twenty-five cents a bushel. 

Mr. Fulton's attempt to boom the onion market 
caused dissatisfaction. Our customers wanted to 
know why we could not pay more than half as much 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 75 

for onions as Mr. Fulton did. We told tliem we 
were willing to allow them all we could get for the 
onions, but were not disposed to follow such a reck- 
less leader. We advised them to contract their 
onions at fifty cents, which most of them did; but 
the trouble was, they had to have money to meet their 
engagements to our firm and to other merchants, 
and they could get only goods from Mr. Fulton. 

Mr. Stephen Henley, of Pleasant Valley, one of 
our best customers and a very estimable man, had a 
large crop of onions. Mr. Fulton offered him fifty 
cents; we offered twenty-five. Henley had to have 
the money for his crop. He felt sore about our 
paying but half what Mr. Fulton offered him, and 
we agreed to ship the onions for him on his own 
account, if he preferred, and to furnish the bags, 
and charge him nothing for our trouble, beyond the 
price of the bags and the amount paid for labor, etc. 
Henley brought in the onions, and we shipped them. 
The result was that they made a loss for him, not 
selling for enough to pay for sacks, freight, and 
charges. 

When the onion crop came in, Mr. Fulton, not 
having any warehouse, had the onions unloaded in 
the yard, and upon open lots, and the little village 
was soon fragrant with decaying onions. 

As every family kept one cow or more, a great 
cry arose about the fiavor of the milk, and Mr. Ful- 
ton became very unpopular with the housewives 
during the onion season. 



76 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Bat how those onions rolled in! It seems that 
Mr. Fulton had kept no account of his contracts, and 
people imposed upon him, bringing more than he 
ever bought — not only their own crops, but those of 
their neighbors and friends. Mr. Fulton's invest- 
ment in onions was practically a total loss. He 
loaded a Hat-boat with some of the best of the lus- 
cious fruit, in October, but the boat froze in before 
it reached Burlington (our river closing that year 
on the 17th of November), and the boat lay there 
until the latter part of April, by which time the 
onions were worthless. 

Mr. Fulton did not arrive in Davenport until late 
in July, yet he managed not only to monopolize the 
onion crop of that year, at heavy losses to himself 
and the natives, but also, with the help of two 
other ingenious and imaginative gentlemen, to 
dam the Wapsipinicon that winter, and build a mill 
and warehouse — at least, verbally, and with all the 
enthusiasm of Colonel Mulberry Sellers in grid- 
ironing Central Asia with imaginary railroad sys- 
tems. 

Buchanan County, where this great feat of imag- 
ination was accomplished, had only about fifty in- 
habitants. Yet Mr. Fulton, that year, furnished 
them a mammoth mill and warehouse, or rather the 
glowing plans foi them. He did not do this for 
Davenport until five years later. 

Mr. Fulton not only revolutionized the prices of 
produce and merchandise in Davenport, dammed the 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 77 

Wapsipiuicou, and built the mill and warehouse, but 
he also conceived the practicability of leading the 
watei's of the Mississippi lUver, at the Upper Rapids, 
by canal along the Iowa shore, and creating a 
water-power for mills and factories. For the ful- 
lillment of this grand work of genius and engineer- 
ing, civil engineers were engaged at great expense, 
and a survey of the proposed gigantic artificial 
waterway was made. Besides this, Mr. Fulton pur- 
chased Smith's Island, and numerous strips of land 
one hundred feet wide, bordering on tlie river, for 
his canal. After all these elaborate and costly pre- 
liminaries, his money gave out, and the project was 
found to be an undertaking just a little too heavy 
for one man. All further work on the canal was 
abandoned, and the property was sold at a sacrifice. 
I must, although it is not within my fifty years 
experience, refer to a little matter that amused me 
when I read it. I would not mention it, were the 
story not so much like Mr. Fulton's first year's 
operations here. In the "Biographical Dictionary," 
written or dictated by himself, he says: 

During 1835, Sauta Anna, Dictator of Mexico, issued a proc- 
lamatioD, requiring all American* to leave Texas. He increased 
his army, and marched forth to enforce his demand. Mr. Ful- 
torf, though quite a young man at the time, called upon the 
friends of oppressed Texas, through the press, to join him, and 
mHrch to the rescue. The immediate result was that a volun- 
teer corps of over three hundred young men was formed, whi(rh 
was the main force at the victorious Ijattle of the Mission, and 
the storming and capture of the fortified town of Baxar, which 
caused the withdrawal of all Mexican troops from the State; 



78 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

and Mr. Fulton's undertaking was crowned with success; 
which act eventually gave us Texas and California, and changed 
the destiny of this Union. 

Mr. Fulton's achievements in Davenport in 1842, 
and the greater feat of conquering Santa Anna, I 
have never seen or heard equaled, unless it be in the 
history of the astonishing exploits of Don Quixote. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Mr. Fulton's Peculiar Manner of Dealing in Mill Prop- 
erty — A Rivalry with Some Bitterness — Failure of 
THE Opposition Mill — Mr. Fulton's Serious Illness — 
A Sick-Bed Reconciliation. 

In 1847, Burrows & Prettyman, having been very 
successful that year at milling in Rockingham, con- 
cluded to build a liouring-mill and a saw- mill in 
Dav-enport. Our idea was to put the engine-house 
in the middle, the Hour-mill on one side and the 
saw-mill on the other; and to run the saw-mill in 
the day-time and the grist-mill at night, as we feared 
there was not wheat enough raised here to run a 
Hour-mill steadily. 

Mr. Fulton was putting up a large brick buildipg 
at the foot of Perry street, on the bank of the river, 
near our store, which he said was for a mill. In 
the spring it was nearly finished and ready for the 
machinery, which was the most expensive part of 
the undertaking, and required ready money, and, 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 79 

for a first-class mill, plenty of it. Mr. Fulton had 
heard of a fiour-mill in Pittsburg which was going 
to be dismantled, the machinery of which was for 
sale. He went to Pittsburg, intending to buy the 
machinery, but not having the money, and being 
unable to offer such security as was satisfactory, he 
returned without the machinery, and his mill 
scheme thus proved as big a failure as his canal had 
proved, a few years before. 

A few days after he returned, Mr. Fulton called 
on me, and said he understood we were going to 
build a mill. We told him we thought of it. 

Mr. Fulton said: "You had better buy my build- 
ing. I cannot finish it, and there is not wheat 
enough raised for two mills." 

Mr. Prettyman and myself thought the matter 
over, and we decided to drop the saw-mill part of our 
project, and turn our attention to putting up a first- 
class steam fiouring-mill. His building was on the 
very ground we wanted, and, with a few alterations, 
would answer our purpose ; so we decided to buy the 
building, if we could agree on the price. He asked 
four thousand dollars. We finally settled on three 
thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. 

We employed William H. Gayl to put in the 
machinery. Mr. Gayl was considered the best mill- 
wright in the West, having fitted out some of the 
finest mills in the country, and we set him to work 
as soon as we could obtain his services. 

Just at this point Mr. Fulton took a step which 



80 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

was productive of some unpleasantness. In his 
" History of Scott County," lie has this to say in 
extenuation of his conduct: 

" The citizens and farmers expressed great sorrow 
that he [Mr. Fulton | had sold the mill, and called 
on him by a committee to express their feelings." 

He replied: "Get the owner of the adjacent 
ground to sell to me at a fair value, and I will erect 
another mill and operate it." 

" When shall we say to the owner that you will 
begin work?" Mr. Fulton says the committee asked 
him. t 

He was in such haste to start this new scheme, 
directly in violation of his agreements with Burrows 
& Prettyman, that he replied: "I will begin to-mor- 
row morning." 

He could make that Napoleonic answer at that 
particular time, because he had in his pocket three 
thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars of Burrows 
& Prettyman's money, with which to buy machinery. 
It was easy enough to put up a frame building in 
the way of trade and barter, but it took money to 
buy machinery, and he had our money to do it with. 
He secured the ground adjoining our mill, and put 
up a hastily constructed pine building, immediately 
alongside, which increased our rate of insurance 
almost doulile, putting us to the extra expense of 
some three or four hundred dollars a year, for 
several years. 

This naturally did not tend to strengthen our 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 81 

business friendship, and I vowed to myself that Mr. 
Fulton's mill never should make him any money. 

Both mills were started the next winter, Mr. Ful- 
ton's about three days before ours. AVe did not 
start up until our mill was finished and ready for 
business, and had no stoppage for alterations, while 
our neighbor was more or less troubled for several 
days. The mills were finished, and run strong 
opposition. " War to the knife, and the knife to 
the hilt," was our motto. 

Burrows & Prettyman had the best mill, at that 
day, in the State of Iowa, turning out more fiour, 
and better, than any other. We also had the best 
miller in the State, Hiram Johnson. He superin- 
tended our milling for thirteen years. Our brand, 
"Albion Mills,'' soon became Avell known, and 
brought, in the open market, fifty cents a barrel 
more than any spring wheat fiour made above St. 
Louis. We built our mill to be run night and day, 
and as we could not get a supply of wheat at home, 
we established agencies up the river, at Princeton, 
Camanche, New Albany, Lyons, and other points. 
We had boat-load after boat-load taken in for us in 
a large barn in a corn-field where Clinton now 
stands — no Clinton then. We chartered a small 
steamboat, called the Oneota, put on her a crew of 
our own, and kept her busy boating wheat to our 
mill. 

To obviate the difficulty in getting wheat at har- 
vest time, when it was always scarce for a few weeks 
1 1 



82 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

before the farmers began to thresh, I, myself, be- 
gan to raise wheat, and grew from one thousand to 
eighteen hundred acres, year after year. Meanwhile 
I kept the price of wheat in Davenport high enough 
to keep Mr. Fulton from making any money, know- 
ning that when I barely paid expenses, he was run- 
ing at a loss. 

Mr. Fulton soon ran his career at milling. He 
involved himself so that there were some thirty- 
odd suits pending in the District Court against him 
at one time. In the " Biographical Dictionary," 
speaking of these two mills, he says, after remarking 
that he sold the first building to Burrows &, Pretty- 
man, who completed it ^^ and put it in successful 
operation^''^ that "his mill, as a financial operation, 
proved a failure, as almost every shipment resulted 
in a loss." 

When Mr. Fulton could operate his mill no longer, 
he succeeded in leasiug it to George L. Davenport, 
William Iiislee, and Louis Macklot, who ran it one 
or two years, suffering a great loss, which they were 
abundantly able to stand, as it was a strong firm. 
AVe always were on good terms with every one of 
the firm, our opposition being only fair business 
competition, and a determination on my part that 
that mill never should make anything — and it never 
did. 

During the latter part of Davenport, Inslee & 
Macklot' s lease, Mr. Fulton was taken dangerously 
sick with typhoid fever. For some time he was not 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 83 

expected to live. People would say to me: " Tliey 
say Fultou is going to die." 

One day, one of the family came to the store, and 
left word that Mf. Fulton would like to see me. I 
went. I shall never forget that interview. Mr. 
Fulton lived in a cozy brick house, at Second and 
Perry streets, on the ground now occupied by Nich- 
olas Kuhnen's tobacco factory. He was in bed, in a 
room on the first floor. When I entered, he put out 
his hand, and I took it. We had not shaken hands 
or spoken to each other for three years. 

Mr. Fulton asked me to be seated. I inquired as 
to the state of his health. He said: "I've been 
getting better for a few days. Last week 1 thought 
I would be in the bone-yard before this." 

I never had heard the expression " bone-yard," 
and it struck me as singular. He continued: 

" Since I have been sick and lying here, I have 
been thinking over our difficulties, and I am satisfied 
that I have been to blame in the matter. You had 
good reason to believe, when you bought me out, 
that I would not build another mill. But I injured 
myself more than I did you; it ruined me." 

I at once replied: "If you feel that way, Mr. Ful- 
ton, say no more; it is wiped out." 

Since then, we always have been friends. Our 
paths have not crossed each other. 



84 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTER 

BuRBOWs & Prettymatst Buy the tEtna Mill — Mr. Fulton's 
Successful Real Estate Operations — A Commercial Sen- 
sation — Wreck of the ^tna Mill — The Purchase of 
Offermann's Island, and Its Subsequent Sale — Some Re- 
verses. 

Soou after Mr. Fulton got well, he went into the 
real estate business, which he understood, and un- 
derstands, and which has made him one of the solid 
men of Davenport. 

The Mr. Perry whose name is mentioned in a 
foregoing chapter as interested in the four-acre lot 
which D. T. Newcomb bought, died before he sold 
the eighty acres in East Davenport. Mr. Fulton 
got on the track, somehow — found his heirs, I be- 
lieve, in Canada — and bought the tract at a very 
low price, and attached it as an addition to our city. 
It has been pretty well built over, and has made his 
fortune. 

As soon as Mr. Fulton was able to attend to busi- 
ness, he called on me, wishing to sell his mill to us. 
I told him he must think me deranged to consider 
such a proposition. "What do we want of two 
mills?" said I. "Our own mill never has made 
any money for us yet." 

Said Mr. Fulton: "You can make money by buy- 
ing my mill and letting it lie idle," He added; 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 85 

"How much wheat do you grind in a year? Do 
you grind a hundred thousand bushels a year?" 

Said I: "Yes, and more." 

He said: "Do you not pay five cents a bushel 
more than you would if it were not for that mill?" 

I said: "Yes, we pay full five cents more than it 
is worth." 

"Then," said he, "you would save five thousand 
dollars a year, if you bought my mill and let it lie 
idle." 

" Even if we wanted to buy," I answered, " we 
could not spare the money. We have not made any- 
thing the past two years, and our means are all 
locked up." 

Mr. Fulton said he believed he could sell the mill 
to us without a dollar down, and that he would 
rather sell it to me than to any other man living. 
He thought he could use our notes, made payable at 
such times as we could save it from the price of 
wheat. 

About two weeks later, Mr, Fulton told me he had 
heard from his creditors, and that they would take 
our notes. Meanwhile we had thought the matter 
over, and concluded it would be cheaper to buy the 
mill, and let it lie idle, than to fight it. Conse- 
quently, we purchased the property, paying ten 
thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, in notes 
of twenty-five hundred dollars each, payable every six 
months, until all should be paid. 

This was the third large transaction I had with 



86 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Mr. Fulton. I first bought his stock of goods ; then 
the mill building for our first mill; and, finally, 
his other mill. In each transaction, I had acted 
rather from compulsion than from business prefer- 
ence; and all three transactions proved obstacles in 
my career. 

When we purchased his last mill, the "^tna," 
the gentlemen operating it still had two months to 
run before their lease expired; but the sale of the 
mill was known to the seller and buyers only, until 
after the lease run out. They gave up the mill at 
night, and we took possession the next morning, 
raised steam, and set her to work, with our flag fly- 
ing. There was a sensation in the town when it 
became known that Burrows & Prettyman had gob- 
bled up both mills. It created a small commercial 
cyclone, and some opposition spirits tried to start a 
project for a third mill, saying that Burrows & Pret- 
tyman were monopolizing all the business, and would 
give no one else a chance. Well, the cyclone soon 
expended itself, as wind flurries generally do. 

We tried running the mill for some time, but 
found we could make more money by letting it lie 
idle. We used it for a warehouse for several years. 

One year, we had an unusual stock of pork and 
grain. We put up, that season, nineteen thou- 
sand hogs, and were very much pinched for storage 
room. We used, that winter, the lower story of the 
iEtna mill for packing pork, and the two and a half 
stories above were filled to the roof with corn, oats, 
barley, rye, and mill-stuffs. 



FIFTY YFARS IN IOWA. 87 

Early in March we had a three days blizzard. On 
the last day (a Sunday), the building collapsed. 
The flooring on every story looked as if it had been 
sawed off, it was broken so clean and even at the 
sides. We found out, in clearing away the debris, 
that the pillars in the cellar, sustaining the building, 
which were made of brick, had crumbled, thus let- 
ting the floors down. Our grain was somewhat 
mixed, and caused us considerable expense and 
labor in properly separating and takiug care of it. 

As the building was now fit for neither a mill nor 
a warehouse, we traded the inside, or machinery, to 
Adrian H. Davenport, of Le Claire, for Credit Island, 
now called Offermann's Island. He took the machin- 
ery to Le Claire, and used it to put in a mill which 
was eventually burned. We cut two thousand cords 
of wood from the island, when, finding it a good deal 
of trouble to take care of, ns our timber was constantly 
being stolen, we sold the island to Josiah Jenny, for 
three thousand dollars. He sold it to old Mr. Gil- 
ruth, the Methodist preacher; he sold it to Mr. Offer- 
mann, who sold it to some company in Chicago, and 
it is now used, in summer, as picnic and pleasure 
grounds. 



88 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTEK XXII. 

History of the Banking Business in Davenport — Cook & 
Sargent's Early Operations — Currency Very Scarce and 
Unsafe — The Loss of a Trunk Filled with Bullion, and 
Its Recovery — Hard Times in a Stage-Coach — Lost in 

AN OLD-FASHIONED BlIZZARD. 

I still bad to go frequently to St. Louis, after our 
river closed. In those days, three times as many 
steamboats were run on the Illinois River as now, 
and they ran, generally, three weeks later in the 
fall, and began running two weeks earlier in the 
spring, than on the Upper Mississippi. I often 
went by stage to Beardstown, and by way of the 
Illinois River to St. Louis. 

Cook & Sargent began a banking business in 
1847. Our currency was very unsafe, and gold and 
silver and eastern bank bills were at a large pre- 
mium over our western circulation. There was a 
large private banking house in Philadelphia — 
Clark & Brothers — with a branch in New York 
(Clark, Dodge & Co.), and one in St. Louis (Clark 
& Brothers). They supplied a large share of the 
circulation in this section. The Philadelphia house 
would draw on the St. Louis house, say, for one 
dollar or five dollars. They (Clark & Brothers) 
would accept the draft, which, of course, would be 
payable at their St. Louis house. Merchants con- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 89 

sidered it safer than our western banks, as the credit 
of the house of Qark & Ik'others was A No. 1, but 
could not be used for eastern exchange without a 
large discount, being, as I have explained, payable 
in St. Louis. 

I was about to make a trip to St. Louis, when 
Ebenezer Cook called on me, and asked me if I 
would take a package of gold (twenty-six hundred 
dollars) down for them, and bring ten thousand 
dollars currency back. I told him I would. This 
was before we had express companies, as we have 
now. We used then to carry trunks instead of 
grip-sacks. 

Cook & Sargent sent their package of gold over 
to the store, and I put it in my trunk. I started 
from Kock Island in the stage; traveled all that 
day and night for Beard stown. My trunk was tied 
on behind. A rope ran through the handles, and 
the ends were tied at each side to a standard. There 
was nothing to hold the trunk there except the rope. 
The roads were very rough, and I felt uneasy for 
the safety of my valuable baggage. 

The stage was a regular old "mud-stage," and 
had no covered boot, to protect the trunk from get- 
ting wet or being stolen. I did not fear so much 
for its being lost, as that it might be stolen. The 
stage carried the mail, and had to stop at every 
town and get the mail changed. I got out when- 
ever we stopped, and looked to see if my trunk was 
all right. 

12 



90 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Some time before daylight, when within ten miles 
of Beardstown, I got out at the post-office, as usual, 
when, to my consternation, I discovered that my 
trunk was gone. 

I ran to the driver, and told him some one had 
stolen my trunk. We examined, and found that it 
had not been stolen, but that the handles, from the 
constant pitching and plunging over the bad roads 
and " chuck-holes," had pulied out. I told the 
driver I should go back as far as the last post-office. 

There was only one livery-stable in the place. I 
routed out the owner, and asked him to hitch up a 
team at once, declaring that it was important for 
me to go over the road before daylight, and that it 
would take a smart team to do it. He owned only 
four or five old, broken-down horses; but I saw a 
very good-looking span of horses and a light rig 
in the stable, and I said to him: "Why not take 
these?" He said they were not his. I told him 
if he would let me have them, I would give him 
five dollars, whether we had to go one mile or the 
whole seven. 

It took the liveryman a good while to get ready, 
but, after starting, we made double-quick time. 

When we had driven about five miles, I saw some- 
thing black in the road, half a mile ahead. I said 
to the driver: "There it is;" and when we reached 
the black object, which proved to be the trunk, the 
sun was just rising. There was a farm-house not 
ten rods away, and the people were just getting up. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 91 

We returned over the road about as quickly as 
we had come, and got a good breakfast, after which 
I hired the liveryman to take me to Beardstown, 
where I took a steamer for St. Louis. 

On my return from St. Louis, after leaving Beards- 
town in the stage, a big snow-storm of the regulation 
blizzard style set in, and we were stalled. It was 
storming terril)ly when we stopped at a farm-house, 
at three o'clock p. m., for dinner. After dinner, 
about four o'clock, we again started out. The roads 
were all snowed under, and the wind blew a gale. 
As there were no fences to show where the road lay, 
our driver lost his bearings and began to drive at 
random. We could not find any house. 

About midnight we got mired in a slough. There 
were some five or six of us in the stage. We got 
out and helped the driver, but with all our efi'orts 
we could not extricate ourselves. After an hour's 
exertion we gave it up, and, all but exhausted, 
crawled back into the stage to keep from freezing, 
while the driver started off to seek assistance. An 
hour later, he returned with a farmer and a span of 
horses. They pulled us through, and at two o'clock 
in the morning we arrived at the farm-house, which 
was a mile from where we had been stuck, and only 
three miles from the place where we had taken din- 
ner the day before. We had been driving around, 
almost in a circle, for ten hours, and made but three 
miles ! 

The next morning, as the storm continued, the 



92 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

driver did not think it safe to start out, so we stayed 
until after dinner, when our host, with his team, 
helped us to the next post-office station, where we 
stopped all night. The next day we reached home, 
after a three days' trip, when we should have made 
the journey in a trifle more than one day. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Change in the Fikm of Burrows & Peettyman — Young 
Edward Davidson's Service — Trading Up and Down the 
River — Success of the New Business Scheme. 

Previous to this time. Burrows & Prettyman had 
employed for five or six years, every winter, a young 
man, Edward Davidson, whom we kept on the ice 
with a horse and sleigh, between Dubuque and St. 
Paul, running back and forth to purchase grain. 
Prettyman and myself hardly ever went home from 
the store before midnight, being engaged in writing 
up the books and straightening up the goods. When 
Davidson was in town he often stayed at the store 
until we closed up. One night I overheard Mr. 
Prettyman and he talking about his buying Pretty- 
man's interest in the firm. I thought at first it was 
only talk — that neither of them was speaking seri- 
ously ; but there was so much of this talk, from time 
to time, that, one evening, when Mr. Prettyman and 
I were in the store alone, I said to him; 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 93 

"How is it about you and Davidson? Are you 
really in earnest in what you say about selling out?" 

He said he was. I told him that was something 
I had to be consulted about; I could not allow him 
to choose a partner for me. I told him Mr. David- 
son was a very estimable young man, but I did not 
want him for a partner. I inquired of Mr. Pretty- 
man what the trouble was. He said there was no 
trouble, except that he did not like the produce 
business. There was too much hard work, and too 
much risk; that we had made nothing for two years, 
and had w^orked like slaves. "He said our store had 
grown to large proportions, and he believed if we 
let produce alone and devoted our entire attention 
to the store, we would do better than to do so much 
other business. I told him that, even if we were 
disposed to do so, we could not. AVe had the mill, 
pork-house, and warehouse on our hands, could not 
sell them, and must use them. I said: 

"The matter is easily arranged. You like selling 
goods; I do not. You take the store; I will take 
the mill, pork-house, etc." 

This did not suit him. He wanted to sell out his 
interest in the produce operations only, but desired 
me to keep a half interest in the store. 

Well, after a good deal of thought and delibera- 
tion, we arranged our business on the following 
basis: I retained a half interest in the store, and 
bought the mill, warehouse, pork-house, and cooper- 
shop, giving Burrows & Prettyman my note for 



94 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

thirty thousand dollars, payable in five years, at ten 
per cent interest, with a verbal understanding that I 
could pay it before if I could make the money; but 
at the end of the time specified, I would pay it, if I 
had to sell property to do it. 1 also told Mr. Pret- 
tyman that my own individual business would oc- 
cupy my time, and anything I did for the store 
would be as a volunteer. Although I expected to 
be able to do as much as I had been doing, I thought 
I ought to do something more, to offset his services. 
The book-keeper drew the highest wages of any one 
we employed. I told Mr. Prettyman he could hire 
any book-keeper he desired, and charge his wages 
to my private account. Our bank account was to be 
kept in the name of Burrows & Prettyman, they 
paying for all grain, labor, etc., and charging the 
same to my account; and, in return, all the debts of 
Burrows k Prettyman, as they fell due, were to be 
paid by J. M. D. Burrows and credited to his ac- 
count. 

On the first day of each month, the book-keeper 
made out a balance-sheet, and Mr. Prettyman gave 
Burrows & Prettyman' s note for whatever balance 
they owed. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 95 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Edward Davidson's Business Venture — Trips Along the 
River — His Death in Trying to Cross on Moving Ice — 
Operations of Burrows & Prettyman — Some Success, ^ 
Investments — Sale of the Pork-House. 

Edward Davidson, to whom I have before re- 
ferred, operated for me on the river a number of 
years more, until our own crops were so abundant 
that they produced all I wanted, and I did not need 
to send abroad; so I abandoned my old winter 
operations above Dubuque. This disappointed the 
young man. He had been expecting to operate for 
me, as usual. He said he believed he would try it 
on his own account, if I would give him letters, 
which I did. I wrote to Henuing & Woodruff, and 
others in St. Louis, and to grain points above, 
recommending Davidson as a man of superior busi- 
ness habits and honesty. It was pretty late before 
he got off. 

On his return trip, he arrived at McGregor's 
Landing, on the Iowa shore, late one afternoon. 
He inquired how the crossing was, and was in- 
formed that it was not considered very safe. He 
said he wished to go over to Prairie du Chien, but 
would like to have supper before starting; he would 
leave his horse and cutter until morning, and go 
over on foot. After supper, just about dusk, he 



96 ■ FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

started over. Next day he did not return, which 
made the landlord anxious, especially as the river, 
during the night, had become more unsafe than the 
day before. 

That night the ice moved, and next day it started 
down stream. It was not until then that there was 
any crossing. As soon as possible, the landlord 
went over. 

Mr. Davidson had never reached shore. His 
body was found in some drift-wood in a slough, 
seven or eight miles below, about two months after- 
ward. They notified Burrows <fe Prettyman, at once, 
of his disappearance and supposed death. His 
only brother was in California. His only other 
relatives were his mother and a sister, who lived in 
Davenport. We at once informed them, and they 
said to spare no expense to find the body, and we 
wrote up, offering a reward, and also hired a man to 
search for him. 

As there was no one to attend to Davidson's pur- 
chases, I assumed all liabilities, refunding to Hen- 
ning & Woodruff what had been advanced, and 
received the produce on my own account, and paid 
all charges against it. 

The first winter after Mr. Prettyman and myself 
made a dissolution in the produce business, was a 
very profitable one in pork-packing. I made a 
large profit on pork, and also had an Indian con- 
tract for flour, which made me considerable. 

In just six months after I gave Burrows & Pret- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 97 

tyraan the note for thirty thousand dollars, I had 
made the money to pay it, and, according to agree- 
ment, took it up. I also made for John C. Forey 
fifteen hundred dollars, on two thousand dollars he 
had left with me for packing on his account. 

Mr. Forey, long since dead, was well known to 
some of our citizens now living. He was a man of 
education and refinement, and some means. He took 
a fancy to Davenport, and expressed a desire to go 
into business in the town, which I encouraged, and 
advised him to try the pork business, telling him I 
had more business than I wished, and if he would 
go into that business, I would withdraw, and do 
everything I could to assist him. It was under- 
stood, in the spring, that he would come out in the 
summer or early fall, in time to make arrangements 
for the season's packing. 

With this understanding, Having a good offer for 
my pork-house and lot, as much as I thought them 
worth, I sold them. I also found a buyer for my 
lard-kettles, press, tools, etc., and thought I was 
done packing pork. 



13 



98 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Once More in the Pork- Packing Line — The Greatest Pack- 
ing Season on Kecord — Every Warehouse and Cellar 
Filled with Frozen Hogs — Difficulty in Obtaining 
Eeady Money — Financial Troubles Successfully Sur- 
mounted — A Profitable Season's Business. 

In the years 1853-54, business was very much 
depressed, especially among bankers, on account of 
the " wild-cat" nature of our western circulation. It 
was almost impossible for the banks to furnish east- 
ern exchange. Our currency consisted of the State 
Bank of Illinois and the free banks of Indiana, and 
was from ten to twenty per cent discount. 

When navigation closed, and winter operations 
were resumed, funds were necessary to take care of 
the hog crop, and to receive the winter accumula- 
tion of grain, and not many operators had the money 
or credit to carry on the usual winter operations. I 
saw, with regret, that Mr. Forey was not going to 
be able to fill his engagement. I wrote to him re- 
peatedly, informing him of the necessity of his lay- 
ing in his salt, putting up some kind of building, 
and providing the necessary tools for the work. He 
at last wrote to me that it would be impossible for 
him to do anything that season. He was settling 
up a large estate in Louisiana, which he had had in 
charge for two years, and had hoped to close up 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 99 

that summer, bat found he could not. I told our 
farmers I should not pack that season, and they had 
better hunt some other market. Soon word was 
received from Muscatine that there was to be no 
packing done there. As it was necessary that the 
hog crop should be taken care of, and as there 
seemed to be no other person to do the business, I 
was compelled to pack. 

I fixed up the lower floor of my ^tna mill for a 
pork-house, and the boiler-room for a rendering- 
house. This was the fall previous to the mill 
breaking down. 1 succeeded in finding some lard- 
kettles and pork tools in Muscatine and Rock Island 
City. I bought most of my salt, of which I needed 
a large quantity, from the packers in Muscatine, as 
they had no use for it there, and, about two weeks 
later than usual, I began to receive hogs. As I had 
the Muscatine hogs, as well as our own, I packed, 
that winter, nineteen thousand, which was twice as 
many as I ever packed before. Muscatine gener- 
ally packed more than we did. 

The hogs were brought in dressed and frozen, 
and could not be cut more than half as fast as at 
present. We received them four times as fast as we 
could cut them, and soon had every warehouse and 
cellar in town filled with frozen hogs. We worked 
two sets of hands, night and day. 

Our receipts of wheat were also very heavy, and we 
kept Cook & Sargent's bank about empty. Money 
was so very tight, everywhere, that winter, that 



100 FIFTY YEABS IN IOWA. 

Woodruff insisted upon Cook & Sargent taking half 
I drew in ninety-day bills. There was no better 
paper than James E. Woodruff's acceptances in the 
New York market, and as all banks at the West 
were in want of eastern exchange, it was no trouble 
to sell our drafts, if we could find any bank that had 
the money. We sent three times to Nathan Cor.with 
& Co.'s bank, in Galena, getting ten thousand dollars 
each time ; also to Mr. Mobley, banker, in Dubuque, 
for all he could spare. We were using from five to 
ten thousand dollars a day during the pork season. 

When at the height of the season, the receipts 
were so heavy that I tried to keep the hogs from 
coming to Davenport. A large part of them came 
from Cedar and Linn Counties. The road branched 
near Red Oak Grove, one branch going to Muscatine 
and the other to Davenport. Muscatine was the 
nearer town. I hired a man to stay at the forks of 
the road and try to turn the farmers to Muscatine 
or Burlington. I had been using money, for some 
time, twice as fast as Cook & Sargent could use 
ninety-day drafts. They told me I could check on, 
without regard to my account, and when they wanted 
a draft, they would come and get it. My account 
was soon over-checked one hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars, where it stayed for some time. 

One day, after banking hours, Ebenezer Cook 
came over to the pork-house and said: 

"Burrows, you have nearly broken us to-day. We 
are cleaned out. You will have to hold up. We 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 101 

coukl Dot pay your checks another day to save our 
lives." 

I told liiiu I could not stop. There was a good 
deal of stuff still to come in. 

He said: "You can buy it, and give your notes, 
payable in the spring. You are the only man on 
the river who has been paying cash this winter." 

I told him I would think the matter over during 
the night. In the morning, I filled out a check on 
Cook & Sargent's bank, "payable the 1st of next 
April, acceptance waived," and told Cook & Sargent 
I should use them in payments that day. The next 
day I should use the same form, only changing the 
time of payment to the 2d day of April, and so on, 
day after day, making each one day later, so as to 
make each day's payment correspond with each day's 
purchase. The plan worked well. There was no 
trouble. I told the farmers there was in our store 
the best stock of goods in town. They could have 
anything they wanted, at as cheap rates as the goods 
could be bought in the States. Any one preferring 
gold, payable in June, instead of currency in April, 
could have it. Many preferred waiting until June 
for gold, and I brought sixty thousand dollars from 
St. Louis, on the 1st of June, and deposited it in 
Cook & Sargent's bank, to pay those gold checks, 
some of which were not presented for payment until 
the following winter. 

All our winter operations turned out well, and that 
winter's business was the heaviest I ever transacted. 



102 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

The store sold a large amount of goods. About the 
1st of March, Mr. Prettyman found that he had 
on hand some six thousand dollars of the paper of 
the free banks of Indiana, which was quoted at only 
about eighty cents on the dollar. He sorted it over, 
putting each bank's paper by itself, and, grip-sack 
in hand, went from bank to bank, all over Indiana, 
and presented it for redemption, taking in payment 
exchange on Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, or 
other good current funds. By this means it netted 
him about ninety-five per cent. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Western FiiOUK Popular Far from Home — From the 
Shores of the Mississippi to the Banks of the Hudson — 
How They Liked Davenport's Flour in the East — One 
Brand at a Premium — Cost of Shipping. 

My pork had been bought very low, and the fall- 
ing off in the amount of packing through the West, 
that season, caused a material advance in pork pro- 
ducts the ensuing spring. 

Our "Albion Mills" brand of flour had become 
so well established, and in such demand, that it was 
a pleasure to manufacture it. I could not half sup- 
ply the demand. 

About the middle of June, wishing to make some 
repairs on the mill before harvest, which would re- 
quire about a month, I concluded, while this was 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 108 

being clone, that, as I had plenty of money, I would 
spend the time at my old home in New Jersey, 
where I was born and bred, and have a good time. 

My wife and myself took a boat to Steubenville, 
Ohio, where my daughter was attending school, at 
the female seminary; and, taking her with us, we 
went to Albany, New York, by rail, where we ar- 
rived in the morning. My daughter wanted me to 
go to New York by boat, so that she could see the 
scenery on the Hudson River. I consented to do so. 

As the boat was not to start until afternoon, I took 
a walk over Albany. Passing along Water street, 
where the heavy business seemed to be done, I cast 
my eye into a large warehouse or store, and saW' the 
lower floor half filled with flour branded "Albion 
Mills, Davenport, Iowa." On walking in, I saw two 
gentlemen standing near the door. I passed them, 
and stood looking at the flour. One of the gentle- 
men walked up to me and said: 

" Do you wish to buy some flour?" 

I said: "No, sir. I came in out of curiosity. I 
live in the town wdiere that flour is manufactured. 
I am surprised to see it here, and have a curiosity 
to know how it came to be here." 

He replied: "I bought this lot of five hundred 
barrels in New York City." He added: "Do you 
know^ the man who makes this flour?" 

I answered: "Yes; very well. I am the man." 

He said: "You are the very man I want to see. 
1 want you to supply me with that flour. It is the 



104 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

best I ever handled. I never sold it to a baker, that 
he did not want more. It is the strongest flour I 
ever saw. One-half the men dealing in flour don't 
know anything about it; but I was a baker before I 
went into the flour trade, and know from experience 
what is wanted." 

He said he had written to Chicago a number of 
times, trying to buy some more of the flour, but 
could find none in that market. He wanted to get 
it direct, as buying in New York cost him ten cents 
a barrel to get it back to Albany, which town it had 
just passed through. 

He said: "Some of the Moline flour, made by D. 
B. Sears, is as good as yours; but it is not of uni- 
form grade. Your flour runs even, and we never 
have any complaint." 

I told him I had an arrangement with my com- 
mission house, Woodruff & Co., of New York, that 
no "Albion" flour should be offered for sale East, 
except through them, and that was the reason he 
could not find it in Chicago; but he could get 
Woodruff & Co., of New York, to stop it in transit 
at Albany, and so save the freight back. I men- 
tioned the circumstance to Woodruff the next day. 
He said he would write to the house in Albany, and 
arrange to have whatever flour they wanted stopped 
there. Woodruff said the arrangement we had made 
with them worked well. Our flour was all engaged 
before it reached them. They never went out of 



FIFTY TEARS IN IOWA. 105 

their office to sell it; any one wanting it had to come 
to them. 

"And," he said, *' it is fifty cents a barrel more to 
you if the buyer seeks ns than it would be if we 
sought him. It is a pleasure to handle your flour, 
and Fagin's, of St. Louis. Fagin's brand is in the 
same demand as yours." 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

More About the Banking Business in Davenport — Trouble 
Over " Wild-Cat " Currency — Cook & Sargent's " Flor- 
ence" Notes — Burrows & Prettyman Try Their Luck — 
All Goes Well. 

After passing a few weeks among the scenes of 
'my childhood, I returned West to my business. As 
I have said, business w^as very much depressed by 
the state of our currency. People had lost confi- 
dence in the State banks of Illinois and the free 
banks of Indiana. Small change had about disap- 
peared, and, instead, many persons gave their own 
individual tickets, printed on pasteboard or fin.e 
paper, as the case might be, payable wdien presented 
in amounts equal to one dollar. 

For some time. Cook <fe Sargent, besides circulating 
Clark k Brother's acceptances, had been paying out 
their own issue of "The Bank of Florence, Ne- 
braska." Nebraska at that time was almost a wilder- 
ness. The money was redeemable at Florence. 

14. 



lOG FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Cook & Sargent had depended on me to pay out 
their circulation, which I had been doing for some 
time. 

I found this state of things likely to continue in- 
definitely, and, believing that Burrows k Pretty- 
man's credit was as good as Cook & Sargent's, 
especially among the farmers, we thought if that 
kind of circulation was profitable, we might as well 
circulate our own paper as that of others. 

Mr. Prettyman and myself talked the matter over, 
and decided that we would enter into the business, 
and issue one hundred thousand dollars. We sent 
to Piawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, New York 
City, the firm which printed all bank bills at that 
time, and ordered what we wanted. They informed 
us, in reply, that they were not in the habit of en- 
graving and printing such matter, except for banks, 
and requested us to send them references as to the 
standing of our house. 

We referred them to James E. Woodruff & Co., 
of New York. They then filled our order. They 
threw in ten thousand dollars, sending us one hun- 
dred and ten thousand, for which they charged us 
eight hundred dollars, the price agreed upon for 
one hundred thousand. They were beautifully en- 
graved, printed on the nicest kind of bank-note 
paper, and looked as well as any bank bills in circu- 
lation. 

I called on Cook & Sargent, and told them what 
we proposed to do, and asked them what they 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 107 

thought about it. Ebenezer Cook rather threw cold 
water ou the project at first, but Sargent and John 
P. Cook seemed to be in favor of it. I told them 
we should do it anyhow, and I hoped, when they 
thought the matter over, that we could arrange with 
them to make our checks bankable. We would still 
continue to pay out Florence, giving the farmers 
whichever they preferred, and we also would let Cook 
& Sargent have all our eastern exchange, as we 
made it, from day to day, and which they, at that 
time, could not have run their bank six months with- 
out. In return, they agreed to protect Burrows & 
Prettyman's circulation, treating it the same as they 
did their own. 

In a short time we began to pay out our checks. 
They went just as well as Florence. Cook k Sargent 
took them the same as Florence. The railroad took 
them, also the steamboats, and we had no trouble to 
circulate them. We calculated the profit on the 
circulation at ten thousand dollars a year, which was 
for the benefit of the firm of Burrows & Prettyman, 
instead of J. M. D. Burrows. 



1U8 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTEK XXVIIL 

My First and Only Experience as a Steamboat Captain — A 
Late Trip Down River with the Staunch Little " Mary 
C." — We Make a Safe Run and Lots of Money Out of It 
— Incidents Going and Coming. 

In the summer and fall of 1856 or 1857, we were 
handling large amounts of St. Louis freight, and 
made an arrangement with Captain John Coleman to 
run his boat, the Mary C, which was a good low- 
water craft, of light draught and fair tonnage, from 
Davenport to St. Louis for us, on condition that we 
give him all the freight he could carry during the 
season. 

We kept the Mary C. running all the fall. When 
navigation was about to close, we informed Captain 
Coleman, as he was leaving on the trip before the 
last, that it would not be safe to make more than 
another trip. We had a large amount of freight in 
Camanche, and it was understood that when the boat 
returned from this trip she was to go up with one 
barge and get it, and leave another barge at Daven- 
port, which we were to load while the steamer was 
gone. 

When the Mary C. returned from St. Louis, the 
weather had turned much colder, and Captain Cole- 
man wanted to run down to Rockingham slough and 
lay up. He had been detained at the Lower Rapids 



FIFTY YEARS JN lOW'A. 109 

tliree or four days, and it was very uncertain 
whether anotlier trip coukl he made. All the other 
boats had withdrawn for the season. With great 
reluctance, Captain Coleman at last started- off for 
Camanche. During his absence we loaded the other 
barge and had it all ready to pull out, so as to cause 
only a few hours delay when the steamer arrived, on 
her way to St. Louis. 

On her down trip from Camanche, the Mary C. 
was detained two days at Le Claire, on account of 
high winds, and when she arrived at Davenport it 
was snowing and freezing, and Captain Coleman 
was discouraged. He said it would be impossible 
to make the trip. After a great deal of talk and 
expostulation, he said: 

"I'm sick, and unable to go. If you see fit to 
take the boat yourself, and go with her, you can do 
so." 

I asked him what he would charge me for the use 
of his boat. 

He said: "Nothing at all. All I require is that 
you shall return her this fall, if possible, in as good 
order as she is now; but if you are froz&n up, she is 
to be taken care of at your expense, and delivered 
at Davenport in the spring." 

I told Captain Coleman I would not take his boat 
without giving him some compensation. I should 
not attempt to go below Montrose, and would pay 
him two hundred and fifty dollars for the trip. I 
made immediate arrangements to get off. The engi- 



110 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

neer informed me that the long copper steam-pipe 
was unsafe, and would have to be taken off and re- 
paired. This took twenty-four hours precious time. 

At last we got off, "Captain" J. M. D. Burrows 
on deck, Edward Davidson and William Dalzell in 
the office, and Peter Hall in the pilot-house. 

Mr. Hall was then considered as good a pilot as 
there was on the river. He is the same "Pete" 
Hall who has been living in a skiff for a number of 
years, hunting all through the South for ancient 
relics for the Academy of Sciences of Davenport, 
and has come to be known as " The Old Man of the 
Skiff" 

We made no landing for anything but wood. It 
was very cold, and ice was forming rapidly. We 
did not want any freight, but sped on our way as 
fast as possible. 

Just below New Boston, one of our barges struck 
a snag and sank. We examined it and found it 
would have to be abandoned. We went ashore, and 
entered protest to protect our insurance, and, leaving 
two men in charge of the barge, we pushed on to 
Montrose. 

On our arrival, I found there were two or three 
boats at Keokuk, waiting for freight for St. Louis. 
They had been unable to get over the rapids, and, 
having sent their freight in lighters to Montrose, 
were ready to return to St. Louis. I sent the first 
clerk down to attend to reshipping, and secured 
lighters immediately to lighten over. As soon as we 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. Ill 

could discharge our cargo, we ran ])ack to the suuken 
barge, unh^aded her, aud returned to Montrose with 
the load. 

The freiijht from the St. Louis boats had been on 
the levee at Montrose about a week, well covered 
with tarpaulins, and the officers did not know what 
to do with it. As we were going to return empty, 
they urged us to take it off their hands. It had 
been shipped at one dollar a hundred pounds from 
St. Louis to any point between Montrose and Dav- 
enport. We offered to receive all the goods we could 
carry, and deliver them to the owners living between 
the rapids, at a dollar a hundred pounds, and a dol- 
lar and a quarter a hundred to any point above the 
Upper Eapids and below Dubuque, these latter goods 
to be delivered in the spring. After a good deal of 
dickering, they agreed to our terms, which left them 
nothing for bringing the goods from St. Louis to 
Montrose. 

AVhile we were loading up, I had the carpenter 
build an ice-crib at the bow of the Mary C, and kept 
the pilot watching the amount of water she drew as 
the loading progressed, telling him to take every 
pound he thought she could carry safely, and no 
more. Besides our freight, we got nearly one hun- 
dred emigrant passengers, at ten dollars each, to 
points between the rapids. We had a tedious trip, 
having to contend with a river filled with ice, but 
we succeeded in fighting our way through. 

When we arrived at Davenport, as our trip had 



112 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

been so successful, I told the clerk to pay Captain 
Coleman five hundred dollars, instead of two hundred 
and fifty dollars, as promised, and to make out a bal- 
ance-sheet, which he did, and paid over to me three 
thousand five hundred and fifty dollars, net profit 
from the up trip. Besides this, my own freight on 
the down trip, which had gone on to St. Louis, 
amounted to fully a thousand dollars more, making 
the profit on the week's steamboating four thousand 
five hundred and fifty dollars. 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 

The Beginning of Financial Complications that Led to a 
Sekious Crisis — Cook & Sakgent's Efforts to Save Them- 
selves FROM Disaster — Calling in Their Florence Cur- 
rency — How They were Accommodated by Burrows & 
Prettyman and Other Friends — Attacks from Macklot 

& CORBIN AND the PrESS. 

In the latter part of 1858, and in 1859, the bank- 
ing house of Macklot & Corbin, of Davenport, made 
war on Cook & Sargent's bank, on account of their 
"wild-cat" money. The Davenport Democrat also 
made almost daily attacks on their circulation, and 
the merchants, too, became dissatisfied, and said this 
state of things was an injury; that it kept out east- 
ern money, and made exchange too high. Between 
Corbin and the Democrat, it became so hot for Cook 
& Sargent that they saw they would be compelled to 



FIFTY TEARS IN IOWA. 113 

withdraw their Florence money. To enable them to 
do this, they procured accommodation paper of An- 
toine Le Claire, George L. Davenport, Davenport & 
Rogers, of Le Claire, Burrows & Prettyman, and 
J. M. D. Burrows — from any one, in short, who was 
esteemed good in bank circles at the East. 

George B. Sargent, one of the firm, went East, 
and established a branch of the firm in Boston, for 
the purpose of negotiating this accommodation paper, 
and attend to other "kiting." As the money was 
realized on this paper, it was used for redeeming 
Florence. Had it not been for this assistance, they 
could not have retired their circulation, and their 
failure would have occurred at a much earlier date 
than it did. 

In looking over my papers for that winter (1858 
-59), just before their failure, I find receipts from 
Cook & Sargent for six bills of exchange drawn 
by J. M. D. Burrows on Burrows & Prettyman, and 
accepted by them, payable at the " Bank of North 
America," New York, and the " Bank of Massachu- 
setts," Boston, at sixty days. These bills of exchange 
were for forty thousand dollars. They were acknowl- 
edged, in the receipts, as accommodation paper for 
the benefit of Cook & Sargent, and were to be pro- 
tected by them when due. The amount of such ac- 
commodation paper was generally over a hundred 
thousand dollars. When it matured, they got new 
bills to take its place. 

This state of things continued until Cook & Sar- 
is 



114 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

gent's failure, an accouflPt of which will be given 
hereafter. This assistance of borrowed paper put 
Cook & Sargent in possession of funds to redeem 
their circulation, but Macklot & Corbin's course in 
refusing to recognize the "wild-cat" currency, to- 
gether with the severe strictures of the Democrat, 
compelled them to withdraw their circulation faster 
than was convenient. 

When we issued Burrows & Prettyman's money, 
it was understood that we would redeem it in Flor- 
ence, which was always bankable at Cook & Sargent's 
bank, and they did more business than all the other 
banks put together. 

Austin Corbin was a very shrewd, cautious man. 
Since that day of small things, he has made his 
mark in the financial world. As everybody knows, 
he has become one of the great railroad magnates 
of the East. I have every reason to speak well of 
him. He always treated me with courtesy, and I 
never heard of his trying to injure Burrows & Pret- 
tyman's circulation, except as it was connected with 
Cook & Sargent, vvl en they were at war with each 
other. 

If a man wanted to use one hundred dollars in 
Davenport, or on the river or railroad, or within a 
circuit of one hundred miles of Davenport, Burrows 
<fe Pretty man or Florence would answer his purpose. 
If he wanted to use it in traveling East, it would not 
answer. 

A man would bring in a hundred dollars of our 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 115 

checks, saying he wanted something he couhl use 
abroad. We woukl tell him we had nothing but 
Florence, which was bankable at Cook & Sargent's. 
We would then count him out one hundred dollars 
in Florence, which he would take to Cook & Sar- 
gent's bank, and get in exchange one hundred dollars 
of Burrows & Prettyman's checks — and the man 
was just where he had been fifteen minutes before. 
This was called, in those days, "swapping cats." 
We saw this could not continue, and were retiring 
our circulation as fast as we could, but the necessity 
came upon us in bad times. Crops in 1858 and 
1859 were almost a failure. Farmers could not pay. 
Burrows & Prettyman had, on the first day of Jan- 
uary, 1859, one hundred and sixty-five thousand dol- 
lars outstanding on their books and notes, and I do 
not believe they ever collected more than twenty-five 
thousand dollars of that amount. 



116 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA, 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Cook & Sargent Resort to Unexpected Tactics — Burrows 
& Prettyman's Resources Threatened — An Interview in 
the Bank — Cook & Sargent Force the Issue — A Run on 
Burrows & Prettyman, and how it was Weathered. 

One morning when I visited the bank, Ebenezer 
Cook called me into the bank parlor, and said: 

" We are getting in our Florence very fast. We 
now have about forty thousand dollars outstanding, 
and must get it in. Your circulation hampers us. 
How do you think it would work if we received your 
money on special deposit only?" 

I answered: " It would ruin us. Any change from 
the present state of things would be bad for both of 
us. The best thing we can do is to retire our cur- 
rency as fast as possible." 

He opened the door and called in John P. Cook, 
and said: "John, Burrows says that change will ruin 
him." 

John P. Cook replied: "No, it will not. His 
credit with the farmers is so good it won't hurt him 
at all. Burrows, we will do all we can to help you. 
We will explain to our depositors that we believe 
you are as good as ever; that we will take your cur- 
rency for any notes or any indebtedness to us." 

I told the Messrs. Cook that they were not stand- 
ing up to their agreement. As to hampering them, 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 117 

I could not see it. I said: "You have made thou- 
sands of dollars out of what eastern exchange I 
have given you. I let you have it at par. You sold 
it at from ten to twenty per cent premium, and ex- 
acted of me a promise that I would not let our mer- 
chants have any, but let you have all, for which favors 
you agreed to treat our circulation the same as your 
own. And then, again, you have our accommodation 
paper, which you are using to retire Florence." 

When I left them they were undecided, and made 
no move until about three o'clock, when they began 
to enter our checks as special deposits. Two or 
three merchants, favorable to me, came to the store 
just after the bank closed, showed me their bank 
books, and asked an explanation. I told them what 
had occurred, and they were very indignant at the 
manner in which Cook & Sargent had treated us. 

That afternoon there was a good deal of excite- 
ment, especially in the lower end of town, and I 
knew there would be a big run on us in the morn- 
ing. I went home heart-sick. I could neither eat 
nor sleep. Long before daylight I drank two cups 
of strong coifee, and went up town to see Ebenezer 
Cook. He lived at that time at the corner of Third 
and Brady streets, on the lot where Durfee's jewelry 
establishment now stands. It was very early — an 
hour before day. I pounded on his door. He put 
his head out of the window to see who it was. I 
told him I wanted to see him, and he came down 
and let me in. AYe had a long talk. I think he 



118 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

regretted the step they had taken, but he said it was 
too late now. He did not think it would injure us 
as much as I anticipated. 

Seeing nothing could be done, I went down to the 
mill, and stayed there until nine o'clock, when I 
went over to face the music. I found at least a hun- 
dred persons at the store. They had their hands 
full of currency. I spoke pleasantly to them. 

I said: "Gentlemen, you come too many at a 
time. If there were but a few of you, I might do 
something for you. Your checks are just as good 
now as they were three months ago. Anything in 
this store or the mill you can have in exchange for 
our checks, as cheaply as if you paid in gold. There 
are in the back yard one thousand barrels of Kanawha 
salt, which we received only a few days ago. You 
can have all you want of it at the lowest wholesale 
cash price — the cheapest in town; and we shall 
continue to take the checks, in store and mill, until 
the last one is redeemed. If you are owing any- 
thing at Cook & Sargent's bank, they will take them 
from you." 

Some one spoke up, and said: "That is honest. 
You need not be scared." 

At this, about half of them went away. The rest 
went to trading. 

As regards Burrows & Prettyman's circulation, I 
am glad to have an opportunity to say that we con- 
tinued to redeem it until the last check was pre- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 119 

seDted, and never paid less than the face called for. 
I have five or six of those checks laid away as keep- 
sakes, and they are the only ones I know of in ex- 
istence. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Every Check Redeemed by Burrows <fe Prettyman — Dif- 
ference Between that Course and the Handling of 
" Florence " — I Mortgage " Clifton " to Help the Cooks 
— An Ill-advised Step. 

One morning when 1 was in the bank, John P. 
Cook picked up a large business envelope, and said 
to me: 

" Burrows, here is a package of your circulation, 
one hundred dollars. We received it from a Pitts- 
burg bank this morning. I don't know how it got 
there; probably they got it from some traveler. 
They told us to do the best we could with it, and 
remit." He added: " They don't know the value 
of it. Give me fifty dollars, and you can have it.'' 

I said: "No, Mr. Cook, I will not do it. I have 
never paid less than the face of those checks, and I 
have got too near through to begin scalping now." 

I was drawing some money. I threw down one 
hundred dollars, and took the package. Whether 
the Pittsburg bank got fifty or one hundred dol- 
lars, I do not know. 

If there is anything I pride myself upon in my 



120 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

business career, it is the Burrows & Prettyman check 
business. The checks were issued at a time when 
the business of the city and the situation of the 
county needed them, and they helped to keep the 
wheels of commerce moving. A month never passes, 
even now, but some one speaks to me about those 
checks, and how they helped business. We never had 
more than a hundred and ten thousand dollars out; 
while I think Cook & Sargent had out three hundred 
thousand dollars of Florence. I know of their 
burning two hundred thousand dollars of Florence 
at one time; at least, they said they did, and there 
was still a great deal in circulation. 

Cook & Sargent receiving our checks on special 
deposit only, injured our paper at the East, which 
reacted on them. They had generally one hundred 
thousand dollars of Burrows & Prettyman's and 
J. M. D. Burrows' drafts and acceptances — accom- 
modation paper, which they depended on to keep 
themselves afloat; and George B. Sargent found, 
after this, it was not so easy to dispose of them, and 
the bank was in a critical condition. 

About this time, Ebenezer Cook came to me and 
said they were very much in need of money; that 
he had been to see if Le Claire would indorse my 
note for twenty thousand dollai's. Le Claire had 
promised to do so if I would give him a mortgage 
on my beautiful home, " Clifton." 

I said: "I cannot do that, Mr. Cook; that is my 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 121 

The next day Ebenezer Cook called again. We 
had about the same talk, with the same result. He 
called again the third day, and was very urgent. 
He said if they did not get immediate help, they 
would have to suspend. They had received a tele- 
gram from Sargent that day, saying he could realize 
the money on my note, and wanted it forthwitli. 

Ebenezer Cook said: "Burrows, if you will do it, 
if the worst ever comes to the worst, I will take care 
of you." 

The w^orst did come to the worst, soon, and he did 
not take care of me. He never raised a finger. 

I gave the note, Le Claire indorsed it, and had to 
pay the twenty thousand dollars, and his estate took 
my place. 

I never would have given way, had I not known 
that if Cook & Sargent suspended, they would carry 
Burrows & Pretty man with them. We, with others, 
were on their paper for enough to break us all. 



16 



122 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTER XXXIL 

Events Preliminary to the Cook & Sargent Collapse — My 
Milling Operations in 1852-53 — Breaking Out of the 
Crimean War — A Great Boom in American Wheat — My 
Preparations to Meet It — Opening of the Chicago & 
Rock Island Railroad. 

In relating the foregoing facts, I have anticipated 
somewhat the chronological order of events, and I 
now find it necessary to retrograde a few years, that 
the reader may have a consecutive story of the de- 
velopments which were climaxed in the failure of 
Cook & Sargent, with the attendant disastrous efi'ects 
upon Burrows & Prettyman and others. 

In 1852-53, as I had been very successful and had 
made a good deal of money, 1 decided to double the 
capacity of my flouring-mill. At the same time, I 
tore down the ^tna mill, and put up Burrows' block, 
on the levee, and also built " Clifton," my home al- 
ready referred to. I spent, in these three improve- 
ments, one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and 
used more than two millions of brick, all I could get 
in Davenport and Rock Island. 

About this time the Crimean War was declared. 
In the spring of 1854, I sent my wife East, promis- 
ing to join her there in the latter part of May. But 
we had, that summer, a great flood. I could not run 
my mill for about two months. Burrows k Pretty- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 123 

man's store was in the watei", which was nearly two 
feet deep on the first tloor. We had to put in a false 
floor, and also to run a boat from the corner of Front 
and Brady streets to our store, to ferry our customers. 

I could not leave while this state of things lasted, 
and did not get away until late in June. 

I had been watching the markets and the foreign 
news. Most persons thought the war would all end 
in smoke, as it has ended many times since; but I 
believed liussia would fight. Others thought the 
war would not aft'ect our markets; but I thought it 
would, as Russia exported a large quantity of wheat, 
especially from the port of Sebastopol, and when that 
port was blockaded, I believed there would be a sharp 
advance in breadstuffs. 

I was in New York during the early part of July, 
and visited my old friend, James E. Woodruff, at 
Woodruff <fe Co.'s office, in Broad street. I had many 
talks with Mr. Woodruff' about the prospect of the 
business season about to open. Breadstutl markets 
were very much depressed, both in the East and the 
West. 

Woodruff asked me what I was going to pay for 
wheat. I told him fifty cents a bushel. 

He said: " I don't know what you are going to do 
with it M that price. There is not a market in the 
world that you can ship wheat to where it will net 
you more than forty cents a bushel. You ought not 
to pay to exceed forty cents." He added: " Y^ou are 
too good to the farmers. You pay too much for 



124 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

produce. You always pay higher prices than any of 
our customers. You work harder, for less money, 
than any man I ever knew." 

" AYell," said I, " we are going to have a heavy 
crop of wheat, and I have doubled the capacity of 
my mill. Our farmers will not sell wheat freely at 
less than fifty cents a bushel. Burrows & Prettyman 
have a large amount standing out which they must 
get in, and it will require fifty cents a bushel to make 
collections. I have more faith in the future than 
you have. 1 intend to ship everything to New York 
— all my flour and surplus wheat, and don't care how 
long it is on the way ; the longer the better, because 
I am satisfied the prices are going to be much higher." 

I returned home. On my way, I stopped one day 
in Chicago, to see how the markets were. Flint & 
Wheeler were the strongest and heaviest grain men 
in Chicago then, and had the largest elevator in the 
city. They took me on 'Change, and showed me 
various samples of new winter wheat, which was just 
beginning to come in from Southern Illinois, and 
selling, that day, at sixty cents a bushel. I had a 
long talk with them about the fall business. They 
coincided with Woodruff that forty cents was a gen- 
erous price, and all I ought to pay. 

Our railroad, the Chicago & Rock Island, had 
just been opened, and freight was very high, being 
about twenty cents a bushel for wheat from Dav- 
enport to Chicago, and then an added expense of 
about two cents a bushel for receiving, selling, etc. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 125 

Fifty cents a bushel for spring wiieat in Daven- 
port, witli freight and expenses twenty-two cents in 
Chicago, making the price seventy-two cents a bushel, 
when the best of fall wheat was selling at sixty cents, 
did look somewhat venturesome; but, in my whole 
experience, I never felt so sure of a season's business 
as I did then. My friends thought I would ruin 
myself. I went contrary to the advice of James E. 
Woodruff and Flint & Wheeler, whose judgment I 
generally considered superior to my own. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

An Unparalleled Wheat Ckop in Iowa — Buying It All In 
AT Seemingly Exorbitant Prices — Luck Favors the Spec- 
ulator — The Investing of Sebastopol Causes Enormous 
Profits — .f 100,000 in Sixty Days — Even Disaster Makes 
Money for Me — Beginning of the End. 

I arrived home from my eastern trip about nine 
o'clock in the morning. After looking over the 
store and mill, I went home, and, taking an early 
dinner, immediately drove into the country to ex- 
amine the crops. 

Such a crop of wheat Scott County never produced 
before nor since. Farmers were beginning to har- 
vest. Our land was new, and in condition to produce 
its very best. Club wheat had recently been intro- 
duced, and nearly all the growing crop was of that 
variety. It stood thick and even on the ground, 



126 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

nearly five feet high, and well headed. For six 
inches below the head, the straw was as* yellow as 
gold. 

Wheat ran, that year, from thirty to forty bushels 
to the acre. What was very remarkable, the quality 
of the wheat was all alike; all graded No. 1. You 
could not get an inferior quality, even if you paid 
a premium for it. This extraordinary crop of wheat 
made me still more sanguine, and I felt in my very 
bones that this was the time to pitch in. 

The heaviest dealers in produce in Davenport, 
besides myself, were Graham <fe Kepner. I told them 
I was going to control the wheat market of Daven- 
port that fall, and that I should keep the price of 
wheat about two cents above prices in Muscatine, 
which, at that time, was our only competitor. I 
also told them that I intended to draw the wheat 
from Cedar and Linn Counties away from Muscatine. 

I made this proposition to them: " I will give you 
five cents a bushel for all the wheat you will buy be- 
tween now and the first of next December. You 
shall put it in my mill, on the railroad cars, or on a 
steamboat, or wherever I shall instruct you. I will 
give you the price each morning which you are to 
pay that day. You shall pay just what I pay, I 
will never bid against you. You will furnish your 
own money. I want your bills of lading and vouch- 
ers every Saturday, and you are to bring in your bill 
every Monday morning, and I will pay you." 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 127 

In those days 1 drew on my shipments only once 
a week. 

Graham tt Kepner accepted my proposition. I 
used to pay them from ten to twenty thousand dol- 
lars every Monday morning. They made an arrange- 
ment with a Mr. Campbell, a banker on Main street, 
to furnish the money. This Mr. Campbell, by the 
way, committed suicide in the bank, a year or so 
afterward, by shooting himself. 

Mr. Graham has told me since, repeatedly, that 
they never did as well any season as they did under 
this arrangement with me. At the commencement, I 
paid ten cents a bushel more than anyone else dared 
to pay. 

I had all Graham & Kepner's wheat put into cars 
for shipment to New York, as I received from 
farmers all I could grind. Graham & Kepner ar- 
ranged with the railroad company to place cars 
where the farmers could get at them and unload 
their wheat into the car, thus saving a second hand- 
ling and the additional expense. 

As soon as I had made my arrangement with 
Graham & Kepner, I went over to Chicago to make 
arrangements with Flint & Wheeler to receive and 
forward my shipments. I told them I expected to 
be able to load a vessel once a week, and that I did 
not want my wheat inspected. All I wanted w^as to 
have them receive the Hour and wheat, from day to 
day, as it arrived, and hold it until they had enough 



128 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

to load a vessel, when they were to consign to Wood- 
ruff & Co., New York. 

It took but a short time to show that I was in 
luck. Sebastopol was invested. Breadstuffs ad- 
vanced in Europe. Russia's ports were blockaded. 
Her grain was locked up. The first of my fifty-cent 
wheat brought two dollars and twenty-five cents a 
bushel in New York. I made more than one hundred 
thousand dollars between the 1st of August and the 
1st of December. Most of the money was made the 
first sixty days, when wheat was low. I began buy- 
ing at fifty cents, and in October was paying a dol- 
lar and forty cents a bushel. At the latter price 
only ordinary profits were made. Everything seemed 
to favor me that fall. One propellor, loaded entirely 
with my wheat and flour, exploded on the lake, and 
sunk, the cargo being a total loss, and I made four 
thousand dollars by it. It was insured in New York 
City, and I saved the freight from Davenport to 
New York. 

From the 1st of December of that year (1854) 
until some time in March, 1850, during the Crimean 
War, I did a fairly good business. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 120 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

A Sudden Taste of Adversity — Death, of Nichoi-as, Czar 
OF Russia, and Slump in the Wheat Market —A Loss of 
$200,000 in a Single Day — Distress Among Dealers all 
Along the Mississim — Small Disasters Follow the 
Big One — The Camanche Cyclone with the Rest. 

Then came a dreadful blow. First, the news of 
the taking of Sebastopol ; then, in a short time, the 
death of Nicholas, Czar of Russia. At the news of 
his death, everyone knew the war was at an end, and 
prices of produce fell instantly all over the United 
States — wheat from fifty to sixty cents a bushel ; 
flour, three dollars a barrel, and everything else in 
proportion ; and the decline continued day after day. 
I went to bed, on the night the news arrived, two 
hundred thousand dollars poorer than I had arisen 
the same morning. 

I had on the market, and unsold, six thousand 
barrels of flour, and, in Davenport, one hundred and 
fifty thousand bushels of wheat, and all my winter's 
packing, not a dollar's worth of which had been sold. 

That drop in prices was an overwhelming catas- 
trophe. It broke up nearly every dealer on the Mis- 
sissippi River, and was really what finally broke 
Burrows k Prettyman. We worked along a number 
of years, badly crippled. This revulsion in the 
market brought on stagnation and hard times, and 

17 



130 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

there was not much opportunity for a man to re- 
trieve his fortunes. 

I had made a good deal of money, but had laid it 
out in building, and in some outside speculations, 
which entailed heavy losses. 

The opening of the Chicago k Rock Island Rail- 
road rather bewildered me. It revolutionized the 
mode of doing business. Heretofore, a few men at 
each business point had done the bulk of the busi- 
ness required, and a great deal of money and good 
credit were necessary. We always had been com- 
pelled to hold our accumulation from November to 
April, and not many had either the nerve or the 
means to do it. 

When the railroad got into operation, produce 
men were as thick as potato-bugs. If a man could 
raise two hundred and fifty dollars, he could begin 
business. That amount would buy a car-load of 
wheat. In the morning he would engage a car, 
have it put where he could load it, and have the 
farmer put his wheat, barley, or oats, as the case 
might be, in the car. By three o'clock in the after- 
noon the car would be loaded and shipped. 

In the pork season it was the same way. As I 
have said before, the hogs in those days were 
brought in ready dressed. A produce dealer would 
place a scale on the sidewalk in some convenient 
place, weigh his hogs as he bought them, pile them 
up on the sidewalk, and, in the afternoon, load them 



FIFTY VFARS IN IOWA. 1^1 

up and ship them. Dealers were at no expense of 
rent or labor. 

One of my outside speculations referred to al- 
ready, was the building of a warehouse at the freight 
depot, which we thought would be necessary. We 
bought the lot iust west of where the Crescent Mill 
now stands, and paid four thousand dollars cash for 
it. After keeping it several years, and finding we 
did not need it, we sold it for two thousand dollars. 
I o-ot the idea that it would be necessary, in order 
to retain our trade, to follow the railroad. We were 
induced to start a branch store in Fulton; also, a 
manufactory for reaping-machines and seed-sowers 
in the same place; also, to invest in the Fulton steam 
liouring-mill and operate it. And then, still worse, 
to start another branch store in Iowa City, where a 
fast young man soon sunk twenty thousand dollars 
for us. The firm was Burrows, Prettyman & Bab- 
cock, and the fast young man's name was Babcock. 
In a trade I made with George L. Davenport, he 
conveyed to me a one-third interest in the only steam 
saw-mill in Camanche, which investment was also an 
unfortunate operation. The only thing expected of 
me seemed to be to furnish money to buy logs. I 
don't think I ever received a dollar in return from 
the concern. If I did, I have no recollection of it. 
Then came the great cyclone which swept over 
Camanche, almost destroying the town, and killing 
many of its inhabitants. The cyclone blew away 



132 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

and destroyed our 1 amber, and badly damaged the 
mill 

In these various outside speculations, I lost not 
less than one hundred thousand dollars, which re- 
Hected no credit upon my business sagacity. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Cook «fe Sakgent in a Strait — Those " Florence " Notes 
Cause the Trouble — History of the " Currency Riot " of 
1859 — Ebenezer Cook's House Smashed — The Rioters 
Visit '•' Clifton," but Think Better of Their Purpose — 
An Exciting Epoch. 

These great losses made hard times for me. We 
were retiring our circulation as fast as we could. 
As I have said before, the necessity came upon us 
I at a bad time. For two years our crops were a fail- 
ure, our farmers were unable to meet their engage- 
ments, and I do not think I ever experienced a worse 
time than in 1859. 

Cook <fe Sargent, spurred on by Austin Corbiu and 
the Democrat, were still taking in Florence as fast 
as they could, but there was much grumbling and 
dissatisfaction. 

Ebenezer Cook was Mayor that year. One even- 
ing in the summer of 18511, some one came to my 
house and informed me that I had better go up town; 
that he understood there was likely to be a currency 
riot that night. After supper, I went up town and 



FIFTY YF.ARS IN IOWA. 133 

held a consultation with Mr. Prettyman. We had 
iron shutters ou the store. I advised him to close 
the sliutters aud stay inside, while I stayed outside. 
An hour later, a mob came from the east, along Front 
street. 

They passed along Front street, between the store 
and the mill, in perfect silence, without halting or 
making a demonstration, turned the corner of Perry 
street, and marched u[). I surmised where they 
were going, and, getting ahead of them, went to 
Ebenezer Cook's house and told him what was on 
hand. 

In a few minutes the crowd came. They did not 
lose much time, but began to hoot, and to pelt, with 
rocks and clubs, Mr. Cook's beautiful new house, 
into which he had just moved. The crowd soon 
smashed in the front windows. Mr. Cook's family 
and I were in the front part of the house, but had to 
go to the kitchen for safety. 

After pretty effectually smashing in the front win- 
dows, the crowd began to withdraw. Mr. Cook was 
very much excited. Being Mayor of the town, he 
thought this attack not only an outrage on his rights 
as a citizen, but an indignity to his official station. 
He said if he had known it in time, he would have 
had a cannon there. 

As the mob left, some one cried out, " Now for 
Burrows!" Another voice said, "Let Burrows 
alone;" but about one-third of the rioters started 



134 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

toward my house, nearly a mile and a half distant, 
the rest scattering to their homes. 

I had a horse near the mill. Leaping upon him, 
I started for home, where I arrived much sooner 
than the mob did. After telling my wife what was 
going on, and not to be alarmed, that no one would 
hurt her, I closed all the shutters, and went outside. 
I told my wife I should not go away, but would 
remain in the yard. I took with me a double- 
barrel gun which I always kept loaded and handy. 

Taking a position east of my house, at the forks 
of the road, in the shrubbery on my own premises, 
where no one could see me, I waited for some time. 
Finally, along came the mob. They halted before 
they reached the forks of the road, and held a coun- 
cil of war. I could hear their voices, but could not 
make out what they said. 

After considerable noisy debate, some one cried 
out loudly, "Let Burrows alone!" Some one else 
said, " Let Burrows alone! " and the whole crowd left. 

And that was the eud of the currency riot of 1859. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. lafj 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The Storm Thickens Over Cook i^- Sargent — A Note Pro- 
tested in' Mac^kt.ot iV CoRRTN — No Funds in the Kival 
Bank — Unsuooessfitl Efforts to Stay the Impending 
Catastrophe — A Day of Anxiety. 

On the 15tli day of December, 1850, the afternoon 
before the failure of Cook & Sargent, about fifteen 
minutes after three o'clock, Mr. Prettyman came 
over to the mill, and said: 

" I forgot to inform you, this morning, that we 
have a note to pay to-day, at Macklot & Corbin's 
bank." 

I asked: "How much is it?" 

He said: "Three hundred and some twenty-odd 
dollars." 

I said: " I will go and see about it;" and I started 
for Cook & Sargent's bank. 

On my way, I stopped at Macklot & Corbin's, and 
told them the note had been overlooked, and asked 
if they would be satisfied if I paid the note in the 
morning when I drew on my shipments. They said 
the note would have to be protested to protect them- 
selves. 

I returned to the store and told our book-keeper 
to hand me a package of city and county orders, 
amounting to eight hundred and twenty dollars, that 
were in the safe. I then went to Cook & Sargent's 



136 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

bank, told Ebenezer Cook about the note, and that I 
wanted the money to take it up, and that I would 
provide for it when I drew on New York, the next 
morning. He said they had just sent all their bank- 
able funds to the express office, to go to Chicago, 
and he did not believe they had in the bank that 
much money such as Corbin would take, holding 
notliing but Florence and Burrows & Prettyman's 
money. 

He said: "Pay it in the morning. It won't hurt 
you to have the note lay over." 

I said: "You are mistaken. It will hurt us a 
great deal, for this is some of our new paper." 

He replied: "That is so. If it is some of your 
new paper, you ought to take it up." 

Some time before this, our creditors, wishing us 
to keep along as usual with them, said that if we 
would meet our new paper as it fell due, they would 
let the old indebtedness stand, and we could pay it 
from time to time, as we were able. 

Ebenezer Cook called in John P. Cook, and told 
him what I wanted, explaining that the note was 
some of our new paper, and ought not to go to pro- 
test. 

John P. Cook answered: " We have not that much 
money in bankable funds, or what Macklot & Corbin 
call bankable funds." He said to me: " Why don't 
you make your notes payable at our bank? Then 
we could hold them over for you." 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. VM 

The note was payable at Cook <fe Sargent's, but 
was sent to Macklot ct Corbin for collection. 

John P. Cook added: " Let them protest it if they 
want to. You take it up to-morrow, and then tele- 
graph that it was overlooked, but that you took it up 
to-day." As I could do nothing else, I followed his 
advice. 

I returned to the store, and then remembered that 
I had left my package of county orders on the table 
in Cook & Sargent's bank parlor. As I expected to 
go to the bank as soon as it was open in the morning, 
I did not take the time then to go after the orders. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

The Blow Falls at Last — "Closed" at Cook & Sargent's — 
A Mob of Angry Depositors — Desperate Scene in the 
Bank — Ebenezer Cook's Frenzied Despair — The Missing 
Bundle of County Orders — Unwarranted Use of Them 
BY THE Ruined Bankers — A Forgotten Promise. 

On the morning of the 10th of December, 1859, 
the first place I visited after coming into town 
was the mill, where I spent about an hour examining 
what had been done during the night, and counting 
the amount of flour on hand, to see how much money 
I would have for the day's business. At a quarter 
past nine o'clock, I left the mill to go over to the 
store to draw my drafts, preparatory to my visit to 
the bank. 

18 



138 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

In the middle of Front street I met Cephas San- 
ders, one of our clerks, coming over to see me. 
. He said: "Mr. Burrows, Cook & Sargent are not 
open this morning." 

I did not take in the situation at first, and said: 
"What is the matter? Is any one dead?" 

He replied: "No, they have busted up." 

I said: "I don't believe it." 

He answered: "I do. I am going over to see." 

It was a pretty cold day. I went over to the 
store to get my overcoat, and then went straight to 
the bank. Main street and Second street were 
crowded with townsfolk. It looked as if there was 
a fire. I should think there were more than one 
thousand excited persons, many of whom were clam- 
oring for admittance to the bank. There were two 
policemen guarding the front door. I went to the 
side door. A policeman was on guard. I told him 
I wanted to go in. He said he had instructions not 
to admit any one. I told him it was necessary that 
I should go in, and that it would be all right. 

The policeman stepped aside, and I entered. 
There was no one in the bank, except the clerks. 
Each clerk stood at his usual place, all looking as 
solemn as owls. I went at once into the bank par- 
lor, and there I saw a sight that I never shall for- 
get. I was really alarmed. I dro2:)ped into the first 
chair at hand. 

Ebenezer Cook was walking the floor, back and 
forth, swinging his arms, and tearing his hair out by 



FIFTY YEARS IN lUWA. 1:39 

the haDclful. Every time he passed me, he gave me 
such a wild, terrible look that 1 thought he had gone 
mad. He crossed the room in this way ten or 
twelve times, neither of us saying a word. 

I then said: "Cook, what is the matter?" 

He stopi)ed in front of me and exclaimed: "I 
am ruined! you are ruined! — we are all ruined to- 
gether!" 

He went to the table and picked up a dispatch, 
which he handed to me, saying: "Head that." 

It was from George B. Sargent, in Boston. The 
dispatch said: "If Clarissa will give seventy-live 
thousand acres" — and something else, which I have 
forgotten — "we can go on." 

Ebenezer Cook stood by me while I read the tele- 
gram, and when I handed it back, he said: "If I 
had received that an hour sooner, I would not have 
stopped — " He hesitated a minute, and then added, 
despairingly: "Yes, I would, too. There is some 
one to be taken care of at this end of the line, as 
well as at the other." 

As there was nothing to be done, I went back to 
the store, and found it in possession of the sherift'. 
We had endorsed some one's paper, and the holder 
sued out an attachment before our own creditors 
made a move. 

There was so much excitement that day that I did 
not think of the package of county orders I had left 
in Cook & Sargent's bank the day before. 

The next day Prettyman said: " AVhat are we 



UO FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

going to do about paying the men?" We had a 
large number to pay — coopers, mill-men, and clerks. 

I replied: "1 will get the money to pay them. I 
have about eight hundred dollars in county orders 
over at the bank, and will go over and get them and 
have them cashed." 

The morning the bank failed, all the money we 
had in the world, except our own circulation, was a 
Bank of Florence five-dollar bill. It was so early 
we had not drawn our usual supply of money for the 
day's business. 

I went over to the bank, and into the bank parlor, 
where I had left my package of county orders, and 
looked the place over thoroughly, until I was satis- 
fied that the orders were not there. I was just going 
out when John P. Cook came in. 
. He said: "Burrows, what are you looking for?" 

I answered: "I am looking for a package of 
county orders I left here day before yesterday." 

Cook said: "It is not here." 

I said: "Yes, it is; I left it lying on the table." 

He answered, in a hesitating manner: "Yes; I 
know you did." 

I asked: "Well, where is it, then?" 

He replied: "McCosh, the County Treasurer, was 
down here, crying and howling, and I gave him all 
ours and yours, too." 

" Why," said I, " Mr. Cook, they did not belong 
to tjoii; you had no business to give McCosh 7riy 
property to pay your debts." 



FIFTY YFAliS IN lOlVA. ] il 

He answered: "I suppose i luid not; but he was 
making sucli a noise and fuss that 1 wanted to quiet 
liim; but I will make it good to you/' 

He never has made it good to me, and I have no 
reason to think that he ever will. 



CHAPTEK XXXVIII. 

Action at Law Against Cook & Sargent — The Mortgage on 
"Clifton"— Victory in the Lower Court, but Reversal 
IN THE Supreme Tribunal — The Revelation of After 
Years — A Single Judge Casts the Die from " Sympathy " 
— Gross Injustice All Around. 

After the failure of Cook <fe Sargent, not being 
able to get any satisfaction or protection from them 
on the twenty-thousand-dollar mortgage to Le Claire, 
nor to get pay for my county orders, which they 
took after their failure, I brought suit against them, 
my attorney. Judge Grant, believing that if I could 
show that I did not owe Cook & Sargent anything at 
the time when the mortgage was given, I could get 
it set aside. 

The result of the suit was a judgment in favor of 
Burrows & Prettyman for one hundred and ten 
thousand dollars, as the bank books showed that on 
the day the Le Claire mortgage was given. Cook & 
Sargent owed Burrows & Prettyman that amount. 

This suit was brought on a basis of ten per cent 
interest from the time we began business with Cook 



142 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

k Sargent until the date of the mortgage. We pre- 
sented a statement and. our bank books to the Su- 
preme Court. Cook & Sargent did not dispute the 
same, and although we showed that they owed us at 
the time the mortgage was given, it was of no avail, 
as, on account of innocent parties interested in the 
mortgage, it had to stand. 

The last time I saw Mr. Lindlev, of the law firm 
of Cook, Dillon & Lindley, was about ten years ago, 
at the corner of Second and Brady streets. 

After shaking hands, Mr. Lindley drew me to one 
side, and said: "I want to talk with you.'^ We sat 
down on a dry-goods box, and he said: 

" Well, how is the world treating you now-a-days?" 

I replied: "Rather roughly." 

He asked me what I was doing, and 1 told him I 
was farming, gardening, and filibustering around, 
trying to make a living. 

He said: "Burrows, I am sorry for you. Cook 
& Sargent treated you badly; but, if possible, they 
treated me worse than they did yoa, when I came to 
settle with them. Do you know how near you came 
to saving your home on the hill ? " 

I answered: " Well, I can't say that 1 do." 

He continued: "You came devilish near it. You 
only lost it by one vote in the Supreme Court, and 
that Judge hesitated a whole year. He hated to 
take your place from you, and if it had been only 
Cook & Sargent and you who were interested, you 
would have saved your place. But George B. Sar- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 148 

gent had obtaiiuxl the money from an estate in 
Boston, where the money was needed to support and 
educate orplian children." 

Mr. Lindley was a very fine man, and wiiile he 
was employed on the opposite side in the suit, his 
sympathies were with me. 

Shortly after the dissolution of the law firm of 
Cook, Dillon & Lindley, which quickly followed the 
failure of Cook & Sargent, Mr. Lindley went to St. 
Louis; represented that district in Congress two 
terms, and then was appointed a judge in one of the 
St. Louis courts. 

The mill and Burrows' block had been placed in 
the hands of a receiver, and rented to me for five 
thousand dollars a year. 

At the end of the first year the receiver told me: 
" You are paying too much rent. I am going to get 
it redviced to twenty-five hundred dollars a year;" 
and he did. 



144 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

More Reverses in Business — Mr. Prettyman Retires — 
The RebexiLion Contributes to the Sum Total of Misfor- 
tune — Then Came the Fire that Destroyed the Albion 
Mills — Not a Dollar of Insurance. 

The failure of Cook & Sargeot, at that time, was a 
great surprise to me, and I think it was unexpected 
by thera. It is my opinion that they had no idea of 
it the day before; but a bank doing such a business 
as they always had done, not having three hundred 
dollars on hand when it closed at three o'clock, 
showed that there was something rotten somewhere. 
If Cook & Sargent had UQt failed. Burrows & Pret- 
tyman would have gone safely through the crisis. 
Oar financial situation was much better than it had 
been. Our circulation was nearly out of the way. 
A wealthy relative in Norfolk, Virginia, had lent me 
ten thousand dollars, to assist us in retiring our 
checks, and would have done more if it had been 
necessary. 

The winter after the failure we were idle, com- 
pletely tied up. In the spring, Mr. Prettyman ac- 
cepted a situation as agent of the Northern Line 
Packet Company, and. I arranged to get the manage- 
ment of my mill and Burrows' block, and was mak- 
ing a comfortable living when the civil war broke 
out. The years 1800 and 18()1, and a part of 1862, 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 145 

were unfavorable for milling — 18G0, very much so. 
I had a large lot of Hour in New Orleans, unsold, 
and communication with that city was about sus- 
pended, and to close out the flour our agents were 
compelled to sell it at auction, causing me a loss. 

In the latter part of 1863, prospects improved, and 
as I expected to do a large fall business, I laid up 
my mill for repairs during harvest. I spent about 
twenty-five hundred dollars on it, and had just got 
it ready to run when it was destroyed by fire. 

The bolts did not work right, and for some time 
I had been running nights and laying still during 
the day, to overhaul the bolts, etc. The repairs 
were to be finished the day of the fire. This was 
right in harvest. I used to raise a good deal of 
wheat then, and, having about one thousand acres 
that year, I was in the habit of going out to the 
wheat-fields every day during harvest, after I had 
arranged my business in town. I had a contract 
for flour, and the boat was expected that day. I 
told the miller not to shut down the mill until the 
shipment was out; then the millwrights could finish 
their job. The flour was not out until about noon, 
when the millwrights took possession. 

I went out into the country about nine o'clock, 
came home at noon, ate my dinner, and went im- 
mediately to the mill. I found no one there, the 
men not having returned from dinner. I counted 
the flour, and found the shipment was out. I had 
set a man to work, that morning, in the upper story, 

19 



146 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

cleaning out a lot of rubbish, and went up to see 
what he had done. 

As I came down stairs to the third floor, where the 
bolting-chests were situated, I cast my eyes upward 
and saw a little whiff of smoke curling around over- 
head, about as much as a man would puff when 
smoking a cigar. I stood and looked at it. In a 
moment it disappeared, and I concluded it was a 
puff of steam which had found its way from the 
engin'e-room. 

I walked down stairs, and met a farmer from 
Pleasant Valley, who was looking for me. He 
wanted me to send him some harvest hands. After 
talking with him for ten minutes, I went to the 
office of the Northern Line Packet Company to see 
Mr. Prettyman about some wheat he had in store, 
which I had bought and wanted delivered at the 
mill that afternoon, as it was to be ground that 
night. I found the teamster loading it up, and then 
went to my own office. No. 2 Burrows' block. I 
asked my son, who was clerking for me, what time 
it was. He looked at his watch, and said it was 
twenty minutes past two. I said I would write my 
Chicago letter, and then go to the field. I picked 
up pen and ink, and had written but two lines 
when a friend, Oscar A. Barker, familiarly known 
as " Father Barker," came rushing to the door, and 
said : 

" Mr. Burrows, I believe your mill is on fire." 

I rushed out, and the blackest smoke I ever saw 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 147 

was pouring out of the third-story windows, where 
the bolts the men had been working at were placed. 

As I ran up stairs, I saw the engineer, and cried: 
"The mill is on fire! Give the alarm, and bring 
water, quick; perhaps we can put it out." 

As soon as I reached the head of the stairs I saw 
that it was too late. I then exclaimed: "Never 
mind the water; try to get out the flour." 

The flour was in the second story. It was too 
late to save even that. The fire leaped from elevator 
to elevator, and in five minutes from the time it was 
discovered, the whole mill, from the cellar to the 
roof, was a mass of flames. 

To the repeated inquiry, " Mr. Burrows, how did 
your mill get on fire?" I answered: "It must have 
been set on fire." But at night one of the packers 
came to my house, and said: 

"I have come to tell you how your mill got on 
fire. Mr. Drew, the millwright, is responsible for 
it. He had been examining the bolts inside the 
bolting-chests, using a candle for that purpose, and 
when he went to dinner, he left the caudle burning 
inside the chest, and closed the doors, so that the 
light could not be seen. The weather was hot, and 
the candle burned away rapidly, possibly fell over, 
and so ignited the bolting-cloths." 

The little whiff of smoke I had seen must have 
found its way through some crack. There was 
twenty-five thousand dollars insurance on the mill, 



148 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

but it all went to my creditors. My individual loss 
on stock was about six thousand dollars, and I had 
no insurance. 



CHAPTER XL. 

Once More in the Milling Line, and Once More Wiped 
Out by Fire — Close of My Business Career, and Begin- 
ning OF Days Darkened by Poverty — Sketches of My 
Two Staunch Business Associates, Robert M. Prettyman 
and James E. Woodruff. 

If that mill had not burned, I might have made 
up my losses, and been in good shape again. I had 
made some money that summer, and had the means 
to run the mill to advantage that fall. It was the 
largest mill in the State, and made from three hun- 
dred and fifty to five hundred barrels of fiour a day. 
It made, once, five hundred and forty barrels in one 
day. This mill cost me about sixty thousand dol- 
lars, and in a favorable season made money fast; 
and if I had had the use of it during the latter part 
of the war, from 1863 to 1865, it would have brought 
me out all right again. As George Hawley, of 
Pleasant Yalley, said to me once, a man could not 
help making money during the war. He said: 

" You could not turn over a stone without finding 
a greenback under it." 

After a brief period of inactivity, I decided to try 
milling once more, and bought the lot at Fifth and 
Harrison streets, where there had been an elevator, 



- FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 149 

which had been burned. I also bought a small mill 
at Atalissa, and brought it in and put it up on the 
lot, but labored under many disadvantages. I spent 
about fifteen hundred dollars trying to get a supply 
of water, but failed. Sometimes I had to hire teams 
to haul water from the river; sometimes, also, to 
catch water as it ran down the gutters, which dam- 
aged the boilers, causing constant expense; but, not- 
withstanding all this, the mill had nearly paid for 
itself, when another fire occurred, and mill No. 2 was 
burned down. 

This mill, like the other, had been laid up for re- 
pairs, and was nearly ready for business when it 
took fire from spontaneous combustion, caused by a 
pile of slack coal in the engine-room. The building 
was entirely destroyed. 

This ended my efforts in the milling line, as I did 
not have the means to continue, and could not see 
much inducement to erect another mill;, and so I 
turned my attention to farming and gardening, 
which I found a hard way to earn a living; but I 
persevered until a year ago, when my health broke 
down, and since then I have been shelved. 

Before closing these reminiscences of business 
ventures and vicissitudes, I desire to record here, as 
humble tributes to their memories, brief sketches of 
the two men nearest to me as business associates 
during my career, and both dead before me. 

Kobert M. Prettyman, so long my partner, and so 
close to me, not only in business life, but personal 



150 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

relations, died in Davenport, from cholera, on Sep- 
tember 3, 1873, while acting as agent for the North- 
ern Line Packet Company, the position that I have 
already said he accepted on retiring from the firm 
of Burrows & Prettyman. Mr. Prettyman was gen- 
erous, hospitable, and courteous, extremely popular 
among his associates, and respected by all who knew 
him. He was born in Sussex County, Delaware, on 
July 5, 1813; being the only son, and youngest of 
three children, of Isaac and Hannah Prettyman. 
His mother died in Sussex, when Robert was only 
four years old, and his father died six years later. 
After the death of his father, Robert lived with his 
grandmother until he w^s seventeen years old, when 
she apprenticed him to a dry -goods merchant, with 
whom he remained until he was twenty-one years 
old. He then emigrated, first to Illinois, where he 
worked at farming for a short time, and thence, not 
liking agriculture, to Davenport, in 1840. Be first 
found a situation as clerk in a hotel, but soon gave 
it up to begin as clerk, and afterwards to become a 
partner in the firm of Burrows & Prettyman, as 
chronicled in the foregoing record. Mr. Prettyman 
was married to Julia H. Logue, on August 14, 1843, 
in Davenport. He left two children, a daughter and 
son — Mrs. A. Kimball and Robert M. Prettyman. 

I have mentioned the name of James E. Woodruff 
in this book, repeatedly, as having been my best 
business friend, and one to whose kindness and gen- 
erosity I attribute, in a great measure, such busi- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 151 

ness successes as at times I scored. He was a noble 
man, generous, high-minded, and indefatigable in 
his business. No merchant stood higher in busi- 
ness circles in St. Louis or New York than he. His 
close attention to business affected his health, and 
in 1855, the year after I had consulted him about 
the Crimean War wheat speculations, his physician 
said that he was threatened with softening of the 
brain, and recommended that he take a trip to 
Europe. Mr. Woodruff had a brother-in-law, E. K. 
Collins, a rich Quaker, of New York City, who was 
the owner of the famous Collins line of ocean steam- 
ships, consisting of four first-class vessels, running 
from New York to Liverpool, one of which made the 
quickest trip ever made across the Atlantic up to 
that time. It became the favorite line, but did not 
exist long. Two of the vessels being lost within ten 
years, the enterprise was abandoned. The lost ves- 
sels were the "Pacific" and the "Arctic." Mr. 
Woodruff had passed three or four months abroad, 
and, with improved health, was returning with his 
family, on the "Arctic," when, during a heavy fog, 
off Cape Race, she was run into by some other ves- 
sel, and so badly damaged that she sank with nearly 
all on board. A gentleman, one of the few saved, 
brought the report that the captain, after examining 
into the damage done to the boat, informed the pas- 
sengers that there was no hope ; they must go down. 
The boat was sinking inch by inch; and just before 
the final lurch, Mr. Woodruff was seen standing on 



152 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

deck, perfectly calm, his wife clinging to one hand 
and his daughters to the other. He held them close, 
and seemed to be trying to comfort them, when the 
vessel shuddered and plunged violently, and in an 
instant disappeared forever. Nothing more was 
ever heard of James E. Woodruff. 



CHAPTEE XLL 

History of the Establishment of Oakdale Cemetery — 
Difficulty to Obtain Money — Present Condition of 
THE Beautiful City of the Dead. 

One of the enterprises in which I was interested, 
and which I recall with satisfaction, because it will 
be a permanent benefit to the city of Davenport, is 
the establishment of Oakdale Cemetery; and I pro- 
pose to devote this chapter to a history of the un- 
dertaking, that the facts, never before all stated 
correctly, may be put on record. 

Some time after all the land in this section was 
supposed to be entered, I heard that the eighty- 
acre tract where Oakdale is situated had been over- 
looked. This was about 1845, I think. I sent up 
to the Dubuque land office and entered the tract. 
A year later, I sold it to John Mullen, an Irish 
drayman, for five dollars an acre. About ten years 
later (in 1856), some half-dozen gentlemen and my- 
self agreed that Davenport ought to have better ac- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 153 

commodatioiis for her dead — something that woukl 
be an honor to the city in years to come. The "City 
Cemetery" was inadequate, besides being badly situ- 
ated. "Pine Hill" was a private speculation, which 
we did not approve. We organized a company, and 
looked about for suitable grounds. After thorough 
examination, we selected the ground now called 
Oakdale, and bought half of it (forty acres) back 
from John Mullen, paying him one hundred dollars 
an acre. 

George B. Sargent and myself contributed the 
largest amounts. The company also borrowed twelve 
hundred and fifty dollars from some one in the East. 
AVhen we bought Mullen's forty acres, land near the 
city was high. DaA^enport was having a " boom." 
As we could not be incorporated until the Legisla- 
ture met, which would be two years, the directors 
had Mullen deed the land back to me, and I held it 
for the company until the Legislature met, when I 
conveyed it to the company. 

We employed an expert landscape gardener, of 
Washington, D. C, to lay out the cemetery, and 
paid him five hundred dollars for his work. He 
had planned and laid out some of the finest ceme- 
teries in the United States. The first two or three 
years, our company was very much embarrassed. We 
were passing through the hard times of 1858-59, 
and were hard-put to it to collect money for neces- 
sary expenses. The loan of twelve hundred and fifty 
dollars had to be paid, as the lender threatened to 
20 



154 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

foreclose. George B. Sargent aud myself each 
loaned the company five hundred dollars. The re- 
maining two hundred and fifty dollars, Antoine Le 
Claire, at my solicitation, loaned us, I giving him 
my individual note for the money, as he would have 
nothing to do with the company. I believe the 
affairs of the company have been very prosperous 
for several years. 

Oakdale is a beautiful place, and will, from year 
to year, become much more beautiful. All moneys 
received from sale of lots, with the exception of 
necessary expenses, are to be spent in beautifying 
and improving the grounds. 

The originator, and the most indefatigable man in 
pushing this enterprise forward, was William H. F. 
Gurley, Esq., long since dead, and who sleeps, I be- 
lieve, in the cemetery at Washington, D. C. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 155 



CHAPTER XLII. 

• A Closing liETHosrECTiON. 

The changes fifty years produce no one can real- 
ize, unless he has experienced them. When my 
mind reverts to the scenes of 1838, and my memory 
calls up the struggles and poverty of the pioneer 
settlers the first ten years of my residence in Scott 
County, and then considers what those men and 
women accomplished with their iron nerve, their 
tireless energy, their large hearts and strong arms, 
my heart is filled with joy and pride that I am reck- 
oned one of them. 

When I see the results of those early struggles, I 
do not regret, even now — when, after fifty years of 
exertion, I am overtaken with old age, ill-health, 
and poverty — that I cast my lot and united my ef- 
forts with those brave pioneers in laying the foun- 
dation of what we are all proud of — the beautiful 
City of Davenport, and the banner County of the 
State of Iowa, "Old Scott!" 

And while, financially, I am even worse off than 
when I landed here, on the bright 27th day of July, 
1838, I flatter myself that I have contributed some- 
thing toward the sum total of prosperity that now 
smiles upon the scene which was then practically un- 
settled, unimproved, and almost unknown. 



156 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Fifty years ago, Davenport contained only about 
twenty-live dwelling-houses, and a scant one hun- 
dred and fifty inhabitants. The western part of 
town, below what is now called Ripley street, was a 
mere swamp, where neither man nor beast could 
venture without danger of miring. Bepeatedly has 
the writer assisted in rescuing cattle and horses from 
the quagmire that existed there, prying up with 
boards, and dragging out with ropes, the live stock 
of our neighbors. Now, that dangerous bog is 
covered with substantial brick dwellings and paved 
streets; the little village of one hundred and fifty 
inhabitants has grown to a beautiful city of thirty 
thousand; and more houses are erected now in one 
year than the pioneers, struggling with poverty, 
were able to build the first ten years. 

Fifty years ago, our dwellings and business 
houses were small one and one- half story frame 
buildings ; now, the new court-house, the Masonic 
Temple, the Turner Hall, and the substantial busi- 
ness houses erected in recent years, are a source of 
pride to what few old settlers are left. 

Fifty years ago, our church-going people wor- 
shiped in warehouses, carpenter-shops, or any rooms 
they could find vacant. School-houses, we had none. 
Now, our church-buildings and our school-houses 
are a credit to the State. 

Fifty years ago, Scott County did not raise enough 
provisions to feed the few hundred inhabitants. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 157 

Now, Scott County stands No. 1 in her business and 
her productions. 

Fifty years ago, we had, comparatively speaking, 
no money. Many a pioneer could not raise the 
twenty-five cents with which to pay the postage on 
the letter from the dear ones he had left at his old 
home. Now, Scott County is the wealthiest county 
in the State of Iowa, and the bulk of her wealth is 
the savings of honest labor, the fruit of the planting 
of fifty years ago. 

Truly, the wilderness has blossomed as the rose. 
The seed planted by the pioneer, taking quick root, 
has transformed the lonely prairies into magnificent 
farms. The small cluster of houses at the foot of 
Ripley street has grown until it covers an area of 
three miles east and west, and one and one-half 
miles north and south. 

I had occasion to go into the Masonic Temple a 
few days before writing these lines, and as I viewed 
its beauty, extent, and facilities for convenience, my 
thoughts went back to 1838, and I remembered the 
many Saturday nights I had waited until nine or 
ten o'clock, in the little twelve-by-fourteen post-office 
which stood on the same ground, for our eastern 
mail, which we received only everu other Saturday 
night. 

When I gaze upon Davenport's new and magnifi- 
cent court-house, and consider the large amount of 
books and stationery now used for county purposes, 
I think of the first two years of my business in the 



158 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

town (1840-41), when Ebenezer Cook was County 
Clerk, and I used to bring, twice a year, from Cin- 
cinnati, in my trunk, all the books and stationery 
needed. 

But, while I notice with joy and pride these 
great changes in the progress and wealth of Scott 
County, Oakdale, the city of the dead, suggests 
other thoughts. 

In looking over my books and papers, containing 
the records of transactions forty to fifty years ago, I 
am filled with sadness as I read over the names of 
,those with whom I was associated so intimately, and 
find so few of them still living. I cannot recall 
more than twenty persons alive in Scott County, as 
I write, who were here when I came here, in 1838. 
And we few that are left must soon go to join those 
that have rested from their labors, and the time is 
near at hand when it will be said: 

"The last Old Settler is gone." 



APPENDIX. 

When I bad my book more than half finished, I 
was requested, a number of times, to refer to the 
Mormons and the murder of Colonel Davenport, as 
being matters of interest. As the book was too far 
along to insert these facts in their' proper places as 
to dates, I add them as an appendix. 

From 1840 to 1845, this section of the West was 
infested with a desperate gang of robbers, horse- 
thieves, counterfeiters, and murderers, who kept the 
country in a constant state of alarm. Their head- 
quarters were said to be at Nauvoo, among the 
Mormons, whence, from time to time, they issued 
forth on their expeditions of robbery and murder. 

Moscow, in Cedar County, Camanche, in Clinton, 
Bellevue, in Jackson, and a part of Lee County, 
Iowa, seemed to be headquarters for the fraternity, 
and when pursued, they made their way to Nauvoo, 
where they were protected by the Mormon authori- 
ties; so the people were compelled to take the law 
in their own hands, and one of the gang at Moscow, 
and some four or five at Bellevue, suffered death at 
the hands of "Judge Lynch." 

We had quite a number of Mormons mixed up in 
our population in this county, but they seemed to 
be of the better sort, and we had no trouble with 



160 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

them. A few emigrated with the Mormons when 
they left Nauvoo, but most of them remained, and 
seem to have been absorbed. 

The lawless state of affairs, and the murder of 
our old friend. Colonel George Davenport, created a 
great sensation in the early '40s. 

About the time of the execution of the two Longs 
and Young, three of the murderers of Colonel 
Davenport, there was published a pamphlet, called 
the " Banditti of the Prairies," giving a history of 
the killing of the prophet, Joe Smith, and his 
brother, and the murder of Colonel Davenport, etc., 
from which work I give the following extracts. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Mormons. 

Nauvoo, the headquarters of the Mormon chief 
and his satellites, in 1844, had already increased to 
a population of sixteen or eighteen thousand. The 
great temple, which, by the way, was built for the 
purpose of a fort or stronghold, was in process of 
erection, and being rapidly pushed on towards com- 
pletion. Like the old established system of En- 
gland, each member was required, aye, even com- 
pelled, to give one- tenth of all he possessed, and 
annually thereafter give one-tenth of his income to 
the leaders of the Church. The male members were 
also required to labor one-tenth of the time upon 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. IGl 

the temple, or, iu case of failure to perform such 
labor, to pay to the temple committee the equivalent 
therefor in money. A rod of iron, a sceptre of 
might, was held constantly over their heads to en- 
force these things, and woe betide the man who dare 
disobey the arbitrary mandates of that church mili- 
tant! 

While the Mormons were rapidly increasing in 
numbers, and daily increasing their power and 
wealth, the country around was suffering severely 
from a succession of robberies almost without a par- 
allel in the annals of crime. Stock of every descrip- 
tion and goods of all kinds were constantly taken, 
and all in the vicinity trembled lest they, like their 
neighbors, might be stripped of their all, without a 
hope of restoration or revenge. 

The offenders were ^frequently tracked in the di- 
rection of Nauvoo, and sometimes, though rarely, 
the property was recovered, but in no case could the 
perpetrators of the crime be arrested and brought to 
justice. In case of an arrest at Nauvoo, the accused 
was immediately released by the city authorities, 
and the cry of " Persecution against the Saints " 
raised, thus effectually drowning the pleas of the in- 
jured for justice, and the officer forced to return and 
tell the tale of defeat. This done, the fugitive found 
a safe shelter under the wide-spread wings of the 
Mormon leaders, and laughed at pursuit. 

Repeated threats were made by the robbed and 
injured, and as often answered by the cry of " Per- 

21 



162 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

secution against the Saints ! " This cry was re- 
sponded to from abroad, by those who knew nothing 
of the real cause of complaint, with sympathy for 
the "poor, persecuted Mormons," and bitter denun- 
ciations against their persecutors, who were the real 
sufferers, and most deserving of sympathy. Thus 
affairs stood, while still worse grew the troubles, and 
the bud of revenge was bursting into blossom. 
Even among themselves the seeds of discord were 
planted, and bitter words were telling that even 
"Saints" were not perfection, whatever they might 
claim for themselves, or whoever were their leaders. 
In the spring of 1844, William Law, a leading 
Mormon, openly charged the Prophet (Joseph 
Smith) with an attempt to seduce his wife. (This 
soon after became the "spiritual wife" doctrine, and 
was believed, and even preached to some extent, by 
the leaders of the Mormon Church.) This charge 
was promptly denied by the Prophet, and Law was 
denounced in the most bitter terms for an alleged 
attempt to slander the Prophet — the holy head of 
the Church — and as a persecutor of the Saints. 
Summoned by the high tribunal of the Church, Law 
appeared, refused to retract what he had said, and 
again avowed its truth, for which he was immedi- 
ately cut off from the Church. Being a man of con- 
siderable influence. Law drew with him a few of the 
disaffected members of the Church, who were already 
tired of bowing in humble submission, and paying 



FIFTY YKAHS IN 701^^1. 1(>^ 

tribute to the Prophet Joseph, and being held the 
ready subjects of his will and pleasure. 

Among these deserters were Wilso, I^aw, Frank, 
Higby, Foster, and others, who determined to put 
tlie world in possession of their grievances, by pub- 
lishing a long train of corruption and crimes coun- 
tenanced and practiced by the Prophet and heads 
of the Church, in which they had long been accom- 
plices, or accessory. In order more effectually to 
accomplish their designs and bring themselves into 
notice, they at once set about establishing a printing- 
office at Nauvoo, in direct opposition to the will and 
special edict of the Prophet. 

In the month of May, A. D. 1844, the new press 
was put in operation, and the prospectus and first 
number of a newspaper published, under the title of 
the Nauvoo Expositor. It contained a series of 
charges against Joseph Smith and the leading men 
in the Church, including bigamy, adultery, larceny, 
counterfeiting, etc. In reply to this, the Nauvoo 
Neighbor^ a newspaper printed under the direction 
and control of the Prophet, charged the dissenters 
from the Mormon faith with the same crimes, and 
sustained many of the charges by the publication of 
numerous affidavits, made, without doubt, by the 
Prophet's stauduuj icUnesses. Each appeared deter- 
mined to outdo the other in the promulgation of 
slander and abuse, which, according to their own 
stories, each had long possessed a knowledge of. If 
either were guilty of half they were accused of, the 



164 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

gallows had long been defrauded of its just dues, 
and earth was teeming with the base, the vile, and 
the blood-stained. 

But while the surrounding country was suffering 
by and remonstrating against the perpetration of 
these crimes, and charging them justly upon the 
Mormons, they, with one united voice, echoed the 
cry of "Persecution for righteousness' sake." Then 
was it that the old adage was fully proved, that 
" When rogues fall out, honest men get their dues." 

Upon the issue of the first number of the Exposi- 
tor^ the Prophet and his adherents determined to at 
once silence them by the destruction of the press, 
and the total annihilation of the office. The subject 
was brought before the city council, and many in- 
flammatory speeches were inade, in most of which 
the members of the said council participated. 
Smith, the Prophet, told them that the time had 
come to strike the blow; that God no longer re- 
quired them to submit to the oppression of their 
enemies, and that he should vote for the destruction 
of the press; that it was a nuisance, and he should 
order it destroyed as such. 

Hiram Smith spoke in substance the same as his 
brother, and also denounced, in unmeasured terms, 
Sharp, the editor of the Warsaiv Signal He said 
he would give any man five hundred dollars who 
would go into the Signal office with a sledge and 
demolish the press; that it should be done at all 
hazards, even if it took his farm to pay for it. 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 1G5 

Upon calling for the vote, eleven voted for, and 
one against, declaring the E.vposUor a nuisance, and 
immediate measures were taken for carrying the 
ordinance for its destruction into effect. The dis- 
senting vote was a Mr. Warring, the only anti-Mor- 
mon in the council, and little was he regarded by 
the hot-headed ones, who were bent on destruction. 

The city marshal, acting under the orders of the 
council, raised a force of several hundred men, 
headed by General Dunham of the Nauvoo Legion, 
armed with clubs, etc., and proceeded to the print- 
ing-office. Meeting with no resistance, they entered 
the office, took the blank paper and other materials 
and burned them in the streets, pied the type, and 
taking the press into the street, broke it into pieces 
with hammers. 

This done, they repaired to the house of the 
Prophet, who addressed them in terms of praise, 
applauding* them for their services, and telling them 
they had but done their duty and upheld the laws. 
In return, he was loudly cheered by the mob, after 
which they quietly and immediately dispersed. 
Some of the leaders, however, remained and congrat- 
ulated each other upon their success, and the down- 
fall of the power of their enemies. Foremost among 
them was the marshal, who thus addressed the 
Prophet: 

"General, this is the happiest hour of my life." 

"Thank you, my good fellow," was the reply; 



166 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

"you have done well, done your duty, and shall be 
rewarded for it." 

This outrage upon the public press helped to fan 
the flame already kindled against the Mormon out- 
laws, for their repeated depredations upon the citi- 
zens of the surrounding country, and plainly fore- 
shadowed the storm that was to burst with startling 
fury. 

The dissenting Mormons at once united with those 
opposed to that sect, and various meetings were 
called, and all parties urged to arm and prepare 
themselves to resist any further aggression*; to be 
ready at all hazards to protect themselves and meet 
the worst. Warrants were issued against the Smiths 
and other leaders in the destruction of the printing- 
ofiice of the Expositor; and, though served by the 
proper officers, they refused to obey the mandates 
of the law, and laughed at its power. 

As in all former cases, the writ of habeas coi'pus 
was resorted to, and all the arrested were at once 
set at liberty and discharged from arrest — the same 
persons that were arrested acting as officers of the 
courts that discharged them; thus effectually de- 
feating the ends of justice, and compelling the offi- 
cer to return to Carthage, the county-seat, without a 
single prisoner. 

This mock administration of law added new fuel 
to the flame. The public being convinced that 
Nauvoo was the headquarters of nearly all the ma- 
rauders who were preying upon the surrounding 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 107 

community, together with the full belief that the 
Mormon leaders were privy to their depredations 
and the resistance and defeat of justice, now became 
enraged, and determined to rise in their might and 
enforce the law, even though it should be at the 
point of the bayonet or saber, and rid themselves of 
the harpies that were gnawing at their very vitals, 
and, if need be, drive out the whole Mormon popu- 
lation. Thoroughly aroused, and conscious not only 
of their power, but also of the justice of their cause, 
they fearlessly avowed their purposes; and, though 
still defiant, the most sacred recesses of Mormondom 
trembled in view of the bursting of th-e tempest they 
had raised but could not avert. 

The officer from whose custody the Smiths and 
others were discharged proceeded to summon a posse 
from the adjacent counties. The Mormon leaders, 
learning this fact, also gathered their forces. The 
Nauvoo Legion, organized at the call of the Prophet, 
fully armed and equipped, and numbering nearly 
four thousand, with three pieces of artillery, pre- 
pared for a desperate resistance. 

The City of Nauvoo was declared under martial 
law, and all necessary preparations were made to 
sustain the edicts of the Prophet and the freedom of 
the crime-stained ones, or die in the attempt. 

The officer finding his force, or posse, far inferior 
to that of the Mormons, called upon the Governor 
of the State for aid to enforce the law, and allow 
right, for a time, to triumph over might. Governor 



168 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Ford, learning the true state of affairs in Hancock 
County, immediately ordered out several companies 
of State troops, and repaired with them, in person, 
to suppress the disturbances, and enforce the* law. 
On his arrival, he proceeded to examine into the 
causes of the difficulty, and despatched a messenger 
to Nauvoo, requiring the Prophet Smith to send a 
deputation to meet him at Carthage and explain the 
conduct of the Mormons. Smith appointed John 
Taylor, one of the twelve apostles of the Church, 
and Dr. Burnhisle, a leading Mormon, to wait on 
the Governor. 

A full investigation was entered into, and Gov- 
ernor Ford instructed the officer having the writs from 
which the Mormons had discharged themselves to 
proceed to Nauvoo and demand the surrender of the 
Smiths and others upon whom the writs had already 
been served, and in case of a refusal to obey the law, 
to enforce it at the point of the bayonet; at the 
same time pledging himself, as the Chief Executive 
of the State, to protect them from personal violence, 
and the troops under his command pledged them- 
selves to sustain him. 

The officer, with a sufficient guard, set off for 
Nauvoo, having also an order to disband the Nauvoo 
Legion, which, on his arrival, was disbanded. The 
several persons named in the writs also agreed to 
accompany him on the following morning, without 
trouble; and how well it would have been, had their 
promise been faithfully kept! 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 100 

Morning came, and the hour of their departure 
arrived, but the Prophet coukl not be found, he hav- 
ing crossed the Mississippi Eiver during the niglit, 
with his brother Hiram, and they having secreted 
themselves in Iowa; and the officer was again forced 
to return to Carthage without the prisoners. 

Nauvoo was again a scene of confusion, all the 
inhabitants taking part in the trouble. Some re- 
joiced at the escape of the Prophet, while others 
were loud in their curses, avowing that he had de- 
serted them in the hour of danger, left them to the 
mercy of their enemies, and was the cause of all 
their difficulty. 

Smith, before leaving, had instructed his wife to 
take her children, with the family of his brother 
Hiram, on board the steamer "Maid of Iowa," then 
lying at the foot of Main street, ready for departure, 
and leave the city. AYith these instructions, hqw- 
ever, she refused to comply, and remained at home. 

During the day, several dispatches crossed the 
river, to and from the Prophet; some advising liim 
to seek safety in flight, and others urging him to 
return and save the city. Thus urged, the Prophet 
and his companion in flight recrossed the river 
about sunset, and on the following morning started 
for Carthage, and Nauvoo was again quiet. When 
within a few miles of Carthage, they were met by a 
detachment of State troops, on their way to Nauvoo 
to demand the State arms there in possession of the 
Nauvoo Legion. The Smiths immediatel}. retraced 

22 



170 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

their steps, delivered up the arms on the order of 
the Governor, and again left for Carthage on the 
morning of the 26th of June. 

On arriving there, the prisoners were examined 
on the charge of riot in destroying the printing- 
press, and held in bail for their appearance at the 
next term of the Hancock Circuit Court. Joseph 
and Hiram Smith were arrested on the charge of 
treason, and committed to await their examination. 

All was now tranquil, and Governor Ford thinking 
an armed force no longer necessary, disbanded his 
troops on the morning of the 27th, leaving but a 
small force to guard the jail, and proceeded with his 
suite to Nauvoo. Here he addressed the Mormons, 
urging upon them the necessity of observing and 
upholding the laws, preserving order, and respecting 
the rights of their fellow citizens, and telling them 
the inevitable result of a continuance of their former 
course of conduct. 

After the troops were disbanded, the most hostile 
of them believing the Smiths would be eventually 
acquitted on the charge of treason, and the Mormons 
still continuing their depredations, and deeming 
that the only way to secure safety was by ridding 
them of their leaders, they still continued to fan the 
flame of revenge that had heretofore been burning 
but too brightly. Urged on by the Mormon dis- 
senters, who were thirsting for blood, they collected, 
to the number of about one hundred and forty, 
armed and disguised, and proceeded to the jail, about 



FIFTY YEARIS IN lOWA. 171 

five o'clock in the afternoon of the '27th. Havin<i: 
dispersed the guard, they attacked the jail, and 
Jose[)h and Hiram Smith, in an effort to escape, 
were both shot dead. Four balls pierced each of 
them, and any one of the wounds w'ould have proved 
fatal. Having accomplished this cold-blooded mur- 
der (for surely no other name will apply to it), and 
glutted their appetite for blood, the mob instantly 
dispersed. 

Great indeed had been the provocation, and the 
desire for revenge had been nursed and fostered by 
a long series of injuries, and yet they can, as we look 
calmly at the past, but little atone for the blood shed 
on that night, the breaking of the law, and the 
wanton sacrifice of human life on the fearful altar of 
the human passions. 

Post-haste from Carthage, whose streets were now 
stained with blood, a messenger was dispatched to 
Nauvoo, with the news of this double murder, who 
met Governor Ford and suite on their return from 
Nauvoo, and a few miles from that city. 

The Governor hastened to Carthage, and fearing 
that the Mormons would rise in force, massacre the 
citizens and burn the city, advised the immediate 
evacuation of the town. Most of the inhabitants 
fied in disorder, fearful that to avenge the death of 
their leaders, the Mormons would spare none. Gov- 
ernor Ford, having placed General Demming in com- 
mand of a small body of troops, with instinictions to 
guard the town, and watch the movements of the 



172 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

Mormons, proceeded at ouce to Quincy, a distance 
of about fifty miles. 

The effect upon the Mormons was far different 
from what had been anticipated ; for, apparently dis- 
heartened by the loss of their leaders, no effort at 
revenge was made. Sad, silent, and gloomy, they 
seemed to brood over the past, rather than to think 
of violence, and all remained quiet. 

The bodies of the deceased were conveyed to Nau- 
voo on the 28th, and were met at the entrance of the 
city by a large concourse of people of both sexes and 
all ages, who followed them to the late residence 
of the Prophet. Here they were addressed by several 
prominent men of their Church, and exhorted to keep 
from all violence, and quietly submit to the persecu- 
tion of their enemies. 

After the killing of Smith and his brother, the 
Mormons had to leave Nauvoo, which they did in. 
1847. Besides the popular clamor against them, 
which made their lives in danger, the Legislature in 
1845 had repealed the charter of the City of Nauvoo, 
and they lost many of the political immunities they 
had heretofore enjoyed. In 1846 they gathered in 
considerable numbers in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but 
only as a temporary stopping-place, while Brigham 
Young, who had been elected to fill Smith's place, 
was fixing a place for the Saints' future home. The 
pioneers crossed the plains in 1847, arriving in the 
autumn, but the great body of followers did not 
reach the new Zion till the following season. 



FIFTY VFARS IN IOWA. 173 

The vacated houses of the Mormons in Nauvoo, 
and the well-tilled farms they left behind them, 
were taken possession of by a French colony, called 
the Icarians, who were driven out of Louisiana, 
where they had lirst settled, by the yellow fever, 
and came northward, under the leadership of one 
Cabot. They lived as a community for years, and 
enjoyed remarkable prosperity ; but after the death 
of Cabot, dissensions sprang up and disintegration 
set in, most of the colonists moving away. Their 
places were taken by Swiss and Austrian emigrants, 
whose descendants to-day occupy the lands first 
tilled by the early Mormons. 

At the time of the exodus, not all the Mormon 
families left, the love of home in some being stronger 
than the love of their brethren, and among these 
was the widow of Joseph Smith, who continued to 
reside in the palace built for the Prophet, for many 
years, keeping it as a hotel. She remarried, and 
her husband, a Mr. Biederman, still lives in what was 
intended to be one of the finest palaces of the earth. 
The structure was projected on a magnificent scale, 
the foundations being laid one hundred and sixty 
feet square, but only one corner of the building had 
been erected at the time of Smith's death. 

Nearly all the old buildings are now gone, the 
magnificent marble temple having been ravaged by 
fire within a few years. This temple was situated 
on the sightliest spot at the crest of the hill, with 
massive pillars and columns, and a tower inscribed, 



174 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

"Holiness to the Lord." About the town may be 
seen the blocks of marble, polished and chiseled, 
that were once part of the temple. The capitals of 
each of the thirty-six pillars were enormous square 
stones, and upon the face was carved a hideous rep- 
resentation of the sun — a grotesque, broad-cheeked 
face, with rays darting in every direction from the 
head, and carving intended to portray clouds under 
the chin. Upon each side of the base of the pillar 
was carved in low relief a crescent moon, and these 
blocks are also plentiful in the fields around, too 
massive for use. There are two arched stone vaults 
near by, which were intended, probably, for treasure- 
houses. 

Not a few of the residences of the elders and the 
apostles still remain, constructed of solid walls of 
brick, with great outside chimneys, and large fire- 
places within. They are now occupied by the 
farmers who came into possession after the French 
colonists had left, by purchasing at tax sales. 
Nine-tenths of the old town has been destroyed, 
only the more substantial structures remaining. 
Among these are the residences of Brigham Young, 
John Taylor, John D. Lee, Hiram Smith, and others 
of the leaders. The original cooperative store is 
now used as a cooper-shop, and the building from 
which was issued the Nauvoo Expositor now serves 
as a dwelling. The tithing-house is now the home 
of the Catholic Church, and the parish school is 
beneath the same roof. A nunnery is within the 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 175 

six-foot walls of the arsenal, which also enclose a 
young ladies' boarding school. The glory of the 
Mormon Ziou has departed, and few there are left 
to tell the tale of the rise and fall of Nauvoo. 



CHAPTER 11. 

The Murder of CoLONEii Davenport. 

On the western shore of Rock Island, looking over 
the main branch of the Mississippi, and facing Iowa, 
stands a beautiful residence, adorned by the hand of 
taste and wealth. 

Here resided Colonel George Davenport. Rock 
Island had been his home for more than thirty years, 
and his name was identified with the recollections 
of the neighborhood, and its history, for a whole 
generation. He was universally loved and esteemed 
for his generous heart and social qualities. His 
wealth had been acquired as an Indian trader, and 
its acquisition had in no respect stained his honor, 
for in all his dealings he had been honest and up- 
right. He was an Englishman by birth, but had 
come to America at an early age. One of the first 
and true pioneers of the march of civilization in the 
great Northwest, his hold upon the affections of the 
residents of that part of the territory was strong 
and abiding. 

It was, indeed, peculiarly mournful that the Ban- 
ditti of the Prairies, amid their outrages upon so- 



176 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

ciety, could not have passed by one so loved and so 
honored. 

It was on the 4th of July, 1845. At the court- 
house in the town of E-ock Island, on the main land 
of Illinois, a large concourse of people assembled, 
among whom were the family and domestics of- 
Colonel Davenport, to do honor to the glorious 
birthday of American Independence. The old man 
remained at home, alone. His family objected to 
leaving him thus unprotected, for there was a general 
fear of the Banditti at that time, in all parts of the 
Northwest, between the Mississippi and Rock Rivers. 
However, he insisted that all of them should attend 
the celebration, disdaining the idea that there was 
any cause whatever for alarm. The venerable old 
man could not believe that there was danger to him. 
Safely he had passed through the perils incident to 
a frontier life — the horrors of Indian warfare, and 
the dangers of a lonely residence on the very out- 
skirts of civilization ; and now that he was surrounded 
by all the blessings of a peaceful life, and in the 
midst of a long-established community, it is no won- 
der that the old man could not realize the idea of 
danger. 

" Go," said the old Colonel, with a benevolent 
smile lighting up his wrinkled face, "go, my friends, 
and enjoy yourselves. I feel secure from all harm." 

After their departure, he seated himself in his 
parlor, reading his newspaper, or following with a 
pleased gaze the turbulent motions of the Missis- 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. Ill 

sippi, as it rushed by the lovely island of his home. 
At length his attention was attracted by a faint noise 
in the vicinity of his well, which did not arouse him, 
as he supposed it was made by some one engaged in 
drawing water. Presently, hearing another noise, 
he arose from his chair to go and ascertain the cause 
of it, when the door was suddenly pushed open, and 
three men stood before him. 

Not a word was said, but almost instantly the 
foremost of the assassins discharged a pistol at the 
old man. The ball passed through his left thigh, 
and as the Colonel turned to grasp his cane, which 
stood near him, the three men rushed upc him, 
blindfolded him, pinioned his arms and legs with 
hickory bark, and dragged him, by his long gray 
hair, cravat and shirt collar, into the hall and up a 
flight of stairs, to a closet containing an iron safe. 
This they compelled him to open, being unable, from 
the peculiar structure of the lock, to open it them- 
selves. When he had unfastened the private bolt, 
they took out the contents and then dragged him 
into another room, pkiced him upon a bed, and with 
terrible threats demanded more money. The old 
man pointed them with a feeble hand to a drawer in 
a dressing-table near by. The murderers, in their 
hurry, missed the drawer containing the money, and 
opened one in which they found nothing of value. 
Enraged at their failure, and believing that their 
defenceless victim intended to deceive them, they 
flew upon him with violence, and beat and choked 

23 



178 FIFTY. YEARS IN IOWA. 

liim until he passed into a state of insensibility. 
They then proceeded to recall his senses by dashing 
water into his face, and when he was restored, again 
demanded money of him; and following the motions 
of his hand, for he was unable to speak, they again 
missed the proper drawer. Still more angry, if pos- 
sible, than at first, they repeated their fiendish 
brutality upon his person, strangling him until he 
again fainted. Reviving him by throwing water in 
his face, and by pouring it down his mouth, they then 
threatened to "fry him upon coals of fire," if he did 
not disclose the place where the money had been 
left, and they would then burn his body in the flames 
of his own house. The old man fell back, insensible, 
and totally unable to answer them. 

The murderers having found between six and 
seven hundred dollars in money, a gold watch and 
chain, a double-barrel shot-gun and a pistol, fled 
precipitately, as if under the influence of some sud- 
den fear, leaving the house sprinkled with blood 
from parlor to chamber, and the venerable old 
pioneer apparently dead upon the bed. 

The first discovery of the murder was made by 
Mr. Cole, of Moline, who, with two other men, was 
passing down the Mississippi in a skiff. When 
nearly opposite the mansion of Colonel Davenport, 
they heard the cry of murder. Rowing to the shore, 
they hastened to the house, and on entering the 
door, which stood ajar, they found blood in every 
direction, and again heard the fearful cry for help 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 1711 

issuing from the chamber. Mr. Cole liurried up 
stairs, where he beheld the terri})le spectacle of 
Colonel Davenport weltering in his blood, and every- 
thing around him saturated with his own gore. Mr. 
Cole, leaving his comrades to render what assistance 
they might be able to the Colonel, ran for Dr. Brown, 
who was with a picnic party on the island, at no 
great distance from the house ; other medical aid was 
also procured with as much expedition as possible. 

Colonel Davenport becoming somewhat restored by 
the assistance rendered him, was able to tell the cir- 
cumstances of his assault, and to greet his family upon 
their return ; but being in extreme agony from the 
torture of the wounds inflicted by the assassins, con- 
tinued to fail, and finally expired between nine and 
ten o'clock of the evening after the assault upon him. 

After a long and useful life and a terrible death, 
he sleeps well, by the side of the great Father of 
Waters, whose waves, as they rush to join the ocean, 
seem to murmur a eulogy and a requiem for the good 
man departed. 

His funeral sermon was preached on the following 
Sunday, by the Rev. Mr. Goldsmith, of Davenport, 
from Matthew xii., 39th verse: "And this know, that 
if the good man of the house had known in what 
hour the thief would come, he would have watched, 
and not have suffered his house to be broken 
through." 

Colonel Davenport described the three assassins 
who attacked him — one, as being a small, slightly 



180 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

built man, wearing a cloth cap; another, a short, 
thick-set, square-built man ; and the other, as a large, 
middling sized, tall man. His description of their 
features was not so minute as to excite suspicion of 
any person in the neighborhood, and as his aged 
eyes became closed in death, nothing remained to 
his family and friends, in their earnest desires for 
justice and vengeance, but to quietly await the 
events of time, and the mysterious developments of 
an overruling Providence. 

Great exertions were made by the citizens of Rock 
Island and vicinity to apprehend the murderers. A 
reward of fifteen hundred dollars was offered by the 
family of Colonel Davenport for their arrest. Hand- 
bills were published, describing the watch and a part 
of the money, with as minute an account as could be 
given of the appearance and general character of the 
three assassins, as described by their victim on his 
death-bed. Companies were organized, under the 
direction of discreet and experienced officers, the 
country was searched in every direction, and a night 
watch kept up, but all to no purpose. Day after day 
the search was continued, but not the slightest in- 
formation could be obtained of the murderers. The 
alarm spread far and wide, but the assassins had 
made good their escape, and the only witness able 
to identify them, the lamented Colonel Davenport, 
could give no testimony in an earthly court of justice. 
His evidence was deferred to be handed in at that 
great court of last appeal, the judgment tribunal of 



FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 181 

God — where no witness shall be absent, and no 
prisoner found wantin*^, and no victim silenced in 
death; bnt face to face, murderer and murdered shall 
stand, in the clear and blazing light of the great 
white throne of the Eternal Judge of all. 



The brutal murder of Colonel Davenport, in broad 
daylight, and on a day when every one was joyous 
and happy, caused a great sensation throughout the 
Northwest, and no one supposed to have money was 
considered safe. 

The whole community was aroused, and deter- 
mined at any cost to detect and punish the mur- 
derers. The Davenport family offered a reward of 
fifteen hundred dollars, and the Governor of the 
State offered an additional reward for the detection 
and conviction of the murderers; but there seemed 
to be no clew, although there was known to be an 
organized baud of outlaws, counterfeiters, and horse- 
thieves, many members of which were well known, 
and some of whom were suspected of being con- 
nected with this murder. 

Finally, a man of the name of Bonney, from Nau- 
voo, informed the authorities of Eock Island City, 
and the Davenport family, that he suspected certain 
persons belonging to the gang, and would try and 
work up the case. 

He approached different members of the gang, 
under a fictitious name, pretending to be one of 



182 FIFTY YEARS IN IOWA. 

their stripe, traveled with them, advised them who 
and where to rob; in fact, made himself one of them, 
and so gained their confidence. 

He followed this up for months, and at last se- 
cured evidence enough to warrant the arrest of some 
eight or ten of the murderers: John Baxter, William 
Fox, John Long, Aaron Long, Robert H. Birch, 
Granville Young, Grant Bedden and his son, Wil- 
liam H. Redden. These were all indicted by the 
Grand Jury of Rock Island County. 

Young and the two Longs were tried, convicted, 
and hung. Fox escaped. Birch took a change of 
of venue to Knox County, and broke jail. Neither 
he nor Fox have ever been recaptured. Baxter was 
convicted and sentenced to be hung, but through 
the efforts of his lawyer and the influence of his 
relatives, the Legislature of Illinois commuted his 
sentence to imprisonment in the penitentiary for 
life. Old man Redden was acquitted for want of 
evidence. It was proven that he harbored them, 
and that his house was headquarters for the gang, 
but there was no evidence to connect him with the 
murder. His son was convicted of being accessory 
after the fact, and sent to the penitentiary for one 
year. 

The result of the arrest and punishment of these 
murderers, was to break up the gang and give se- 
curity to the community. 



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